WNL Series: Chasing Away The Past
by Dashel
Summary: Full prior reading list inside. Sasuke has been back for many months but their relationship has hit an unexpected obstacle when memories get stirred up about Sasuke's nightmarish past. Can he overcome overprotective Naruto and his own issues to face his problems or are things only going to get worse when his past begins to catch up with him?
1. Holding Back

_**Dash General Warnings (Important, please read): **This is Yaoi. If you are still here I will also add that this fic will probably contain swearing and sex and all sorts of other goodies. Still here? Well this fic might also contain no predetermined roles in respect to sexual activities. Yep, I have to add this as a warning now. But what that means is that in my stories no one is ever solely uke or seme or batman or whatever predefined roles people might expect. Or they might be but I might not know who it will be from the beginning. Sometimes one person will top, sometimes the other will depending on my mood or where the story needs to go. Sometimes it will switch mid story if I feel like it. Please do not continue if you have preferences for either character and will be upset if whoever you expect to top doesn't. Generally not even I know who will do what at the very beginning of a fic and will decide as I go along. They may not swap at all, but I like to keep my options open and I do not want to make people read multiple chapters of my fic only to dislike the sex scenes. _

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or any of the characters from the series, they just take up residence in my head every now and again._

_**Important Info & Recomended Reading: **So this is sort of the master class for the WNL Series. If you haven't read all the fics (I Want, I Need, I'd Love), the Yule Special, The White Day Special nor the I Need You To Need To Sasuke POV chapters (thought admittedly these are more optional than the others) then you are a little behind and might not want to read further in case of spoilers. If you are all up to date, read on. If you aren't all up to date and don't care about spoilers then you might be a little confused in some places but happy reading all the same._

_It occurs to me that the first three fics were a little more Naruto centred than Sasuke, so it was about time to have a few more Sasuke orientated fics. This fic takes place a couple of months after the White Day Special and will focus mainly on Sasuke and his past issues and what he is doing to overcome it. And of course his ever growing close relationship with Naruto. Enjoy!_

**WNL Series: Chasing Away The Past**

**Chapter 1**

**Holding Back**

Naruto was trapped.

Behind him was a smooth cold wall sliding against him occasionally sending chills running down his back as his shoulders made contact with the cool surface. On the other side and beneath him was a warm slightly sweaty body, arms wrapped around him, helping him move, causing his shoulders to slide against the wall behind him. His own legs were bent, his feet planted behind that person on the bed while he sat in the person's lap, their legs crossed beneath them, their cock filling him up and making him moan.

He was very close.

"Sas…Sasuke…"

He wanted to tell him to slow down or do something, _anything_ to prolong what they were doing but he couldn't get the words out in time. So instead he squeezed his eyes closed and went with his coming orgasm making Sasuke groan as the muscles clenched around him causing his pleasure to be cut short as well as he came not too long afterwards.

Breathing heavily, Naruto let his head drop back to rest against the wall behind him while he continued to hold on to Sasuke's slick shoulders and recover. Moments later he felt Sasuke lean forward and rest his forehead against Naruto's chest and Naruto ran a hand up through the damp hair on the back of his neck.

Well either they were both really out of shape or it had been going on longer than he'd thought it had. He was always torn between wanting it to go longer and wanting to come that he often lost track of time. Besides, Sasuke had been back in Konoha for almost six months and it wasn't like it had been in the old days. In the old days before he'd come back and the two of them had been sneaking out to see each other in secret, it had almost always out of necessity been quick and to the point. Nowadays they had no such problems. The longest time they spent apart was when Naruto had to go out on a mission, the longest of which had only been a week. It had been a long week from both of their perspectives, and when he'd gotten home they'd spent the next three days doing pretty much what they had just done, only stopping for food, sleep, and showers.

Then he'd spent about the same amount of time recovering and warning Sasuke that if he ever so much as tried to start anything, Naruto would beat the ever-living crap out of him. This was because, generally speaking, Naruto was almost always the one in the most pain. And it wasn't like they had pre-defined roles within the relationship where he must always be on the receiving end because it wasn't always that way. But it usually was. And tonight he was regretting it again. He'd just come back from a mission yesterday and so far Sasuke hadn't let up. It was really nice to be missed so thoroughly, but it was getting pretty painful too, he had to admit.

Luckily these days pain was only really a factor when they were at each other for days at a time, or when one or the other of them decided to get a little too rough, and yet it was still annoying when he went out the next day only to feel his back scream in response, and his shoulder muscles ache. Not to mention the embarassing involuntary hissing that ensued every time he sat down on his now greatly abused ass.

"Sasuke?"

"Mmmm?" was the muffled response of a head resting face first against his chest.

"Why am I hardly ever on top?"

Sasuke raised his head at this out of the blue question and further raised one eyebrow too. "Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure you're the one sitting on me right now."

"You know what I mean, teme!"

Sasuke did the smallest of exhausted shoulder shrugs. "I'm usually the one that starts things."

"So if I started it you'd…you know."

"Take one for the team?" Sasuke asked with a smirk.

Thankfully in the darkness Sasuke probably couldn't see him flush. "Well, yeah, I guess."

"It's not like it's never happened," Sasuke reminded him.

"Not very often. Was it, um…not good?"

Sasuke frowned a little. "It was good. You like it better that way?"

"I wouldn't say that," Naruto answered quickly. "It's always good, better than good, fantastic even and I-"

"Rambling," Sasuke warned.

Naruto took a deep breath, knowing he was going to regret bringing this up, but also knowing Sasuke would pick at him till he had an answer now that it had started. He wasn't generally a nosy person, but he wouldn't stand for the notion that he was never the best ever at everything. Which wasn't at all what Naruto was implying, but Sasuke would take it as an insult unless reassured otherwise.

"It's just that after these days long sessions when I get home I get sorta sore and it's bad when I gotta go out and train, but mostly I was wondering whether you preferred it this way because you don't like it when I do it to you."

"You think _I_ think you're crap?" Sasuke clarified.

"Well yeah."

"And you think I would be better off being the sore one because I don't have to go out and train like you do," Sasuke went on.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Fuck me Sasuke, why do you have to go and make everything sound so…so…"

"Negative?"

"Yeah!"

"Because it's generally the way things really are. You think I'm not sore after our sessions either?"

"Not like I am," Naruto muttered.

"Tch. It's not that bad. You want me to stop jumping on you the moment you get home?"

"No!"

"I didn't think so. You've never complained before."

"I'm not complaining now! I wouldn't give this up for anything, I was just asking a question."

"So you don't want us to stop doing this?"

Did Sasuke mean that he was talking about them breaking up? "Woah, woah, this is getting blown way out of proportion. Look I love what you do to me, but would it be so bad for once that you were the one walking funny afterwards?"

"It's not like we trap ourselves in here for days all the time. Only when you get back from missions."

"That's true I guess," Naruto reasoned. But then, "Hey, you still haven't answered my question. I was right, wasn't I? I'm crap, aren't I?"

Well maybe Sasuke wasn't the only one who liked to know they were good at something.

Sasuke took his time answering and that gave Naruto a bad feeling.

"You're not crap. Look wait, my legs are going numb," Sasuke told him before urging him to slide his legs back and sit up so Sasuke could get out from underneath him and lay back with a huge sigh.

Naruto sat down next to him and winced for a moment before finding a more comfortable way to sit.

"You're such a girl," Sasuke commented watching him.

"And you're really bad at answering questions," Naruto shot back. "C'mon there's got to be more to it than, 'you're not crap'."

"It's complicated," Sasuke replied after a few moments. "Do you remember what I told you in the hot springs about my past experiences?"

It didn't take long to remember, it had definitely been one of those things that stuck in your mind. He'd never imagined that had anything to do with this though, otherwise he would have kept his mouth shut. Sasuke didn't like to talk about things at the best of times, though he was getting better at it these days. Mainly because now that he lived with Naruto, it was either spill or be bugged for weeks at a time. So in the interests of his sanity, Sasuke tended to break from past habits and do the occasional share. But this time Naruto was going to give him a free 'out'. There were just some things that probably needed to be talked about when the other person was ready, not forced out because they thought they would be verbally tortured till they talked about it.

"I remember. Look Sasuke, you don't have to tell me about it. If that had anything to do with this…"

And then Naruto realised just how Sasuke could be having a problem with the thought of someone else topping. His brain quite literally didn't know what to do. He was livid, disgusted, and horrified all in one go. The thought that someone had touched Sasuke and done _that_ to him was like someone had just smacked him in the head and chest simultaneously. It reminded him of how he'd felt the first time Sasuke had told him and how he'd felt then.

_Sasuke seemed almost reluctant to answer at first. And when he did his voice sounded kind of strange. It was almost like he was trying to sound casual and nonchalant about it, but Naruto could detect just the faintest amount of strain in his voice as he replied._

"_People tend to annoy me. You are," he paused a moment like he had to collect his thoughts, "The only person I've been with by my own want."_

_It was at this point that Naruto stopped breathing. He stayed perfectly still while internally his mind just seemed to freeze up. Sasuke just continued obviously not noticing._

"_I was never exactly forced, I consented, but I would have not decided to participate by my own volition if I felt I had any real choice in the matter. In the past, I felt like I had to do it to further my ambition, and no," Sasuke followed up quickly knowing what was coming, the first time his voice sounded so sure in the last few moments. "You can't ask any questions. And if you don't drop it right now, I will leave or drown you. Or both."_

_Sasuke obviously knew him pretty well to know he was about to ask questions. However, Sasuke probably thought he was going to ask him if he was okay or something like that. Naruto already knew that Sasuke wasn't okay, no matter what his reply might have been. It had obviously scarred him more than Sasuke liked to let on, but the fact was that although he hadn't shown any great interest in other people when he was younger, he had almost no sense of relationships now because people just seemed to continually remind him that relationships with others would only hurt you in the end. Everything with his brother was bad enough that Sasuke didn't want to feel close to people like he did with his family and then something like this had to happen to him, reinforcing the notion that people only wanted to use you, nobody really cared about you and that's how life was._

_At first Naruto wanted to scream and start demanding who had done this and if it had been that Orochimaru pervert or someone else. Of course Sasuke made it sound like it had been more than one over the years and that only made him madder. But when Sasuke had told him that he wasn't allowed to ask questions he stopped the scream before it found voice and just focussed on breathing and clearing the red angry haze from his mind. The thought of anyone doing that to his Sasuke, touching him, using him, scarring him further and making him shy away from trusting people altogether had made him livid. _

_But then when he wasn't allowed his anger, Naruto thought more about their situation now and what that meant. Really it was a miracle Sasuke had wanted any sort of closeness with him, let alone be the one to really initiate things from the beginning that it calmed him a lot to think that Sasuke maybe trusted him when he had every right not to want to trust anyone anymore. It actually made his chest ache to think about it and what it must have cost Sasuke. There was only one thing after that he could think to say._

"_Sorry."_

"_Why should you say 'sorry'?" Sasuke snapped probably mistaking Naruto's true intentions for pity._

"_Because somebody has to."_

And no one else ever has said it to you that should have,_ Naruto finished in his own mind._

_When Sasuke relaxed back against him Naruto wrapped both arms around his shoulders in an admittedly possessive manner. He couldn't help but think though that if anyone ever touched him like that again, Naruto would tear them apart. And gods help them if he met any of those people from Sasuke's past. Of course that's if they lived through anything Sasuke might do to them first._

But he'd never imagined that what they did together now could make things worse for Sasuke. That what they did together might impact him in the same way. The aura of barely controlled brain explosion must have reached Sasuke pretty quickly because he sat up sharply and grabbed Naruto's chin, forcing Naruto to look at him and pay attention. "No, don't let your mind take you there. It wasn't like that."

"Somebody forced you! And I..." Naruto exclaimed his mind unwilling to let go of it now. It was lucky he had such tight control of the Kyuubi these days or the room might have exploded quite literally. As it was he could feel his teeth sharpen at the thought.

Sasuke must have seen it too. "If you don't calm down I _will_ hit you and make you calm down. Nobody forced me, not really. I explained this to you already. There was always the option of saying 'no' and walking away but I didn't because I could only think of moving forward and I felt that if I didn't do certain things in certain situations that I wouldn't be allowed to keep moving in the direction I wanted. I did feel trapped, I didn't choose who or when, but I didn't say 'no' either. That isn't being forced, that's just doing whatever you feel you have to do to achieve a higher goal. Which I might add was not worth it in the end."

"I don't understand the difference," Naruto told him. "If it was either do it or else, that's still being forced."

"Well _I _do understand and, no offence, but that's what really matters."

"You got hurt though, didn't you?"

Sasuke didn't answer him, but he didn't really need to. A lot of things made a lot more sense to him now. Especially that time in the dark temple when Sasuke had told him that he trusted him and that he needed to do this right before Naruto had experienced being inside him for the first time. Now that he understood just what those words meant he felt pretty sick about it. Of course the fact that Sasuke had trusted him so much to even contemplate doing that so early in their relationship was not lost on him either, but he felt guilty all the same.

"You're thinking about it too much dobe, I can almost hear the wheels turning."

Naruto took a deep breath. Though Sasuke had managed to calm him down a bit, he still wanted to know just who this person or people were so he could go to them and make them very sorry.

"It was more than one, wasn't it?"

"Why do you ask? Do you want to be all protective and do something violent to them?" Sasuke asked.

"You bet I do!"

"Well too bad because I'm pretty sure that most of them are already dead. But what you can actually do for me is drop it. I'm over it and you should be too."

Even Naruto could tell Sasuke was lying. Not every bad dream he had, and there were a lot of them, could just be about his brother and the rest of his family. But for Sasuke's sake he'd try to appear calm right now because pissing on about it was not going to be helpful at the moment.

"But anyway," Sasuke continued, "It does have a bit to do with certain reservations I have about the experience. _Past_ reservations."

"I would never hurt you Sasuke," Naruto told him softly.

"Not even if I asked nicely?"

"Don't even make jokes about that! Look I won't bring it up again, okay? It doesn't matter at all to me who does what."

"It might not have much before, but it will now," Sasuke told him perceptively. "I bet you already feel bad about past times you've fucked me. I'm telling you this now, the fact that I could do that with you should tell you how much I trust you. You haven't forced me, I've always had a clear and easy choice to say 'no' with no repercussions and for me it's the only time it feels _okay_ for me to lose control. If you ever got into the mood to do it again I would gladly let you because with you it's amazing."

Sasuke never said things to him just for the sake of making him feel better, never. And he seemed really sincere too. But Naruto knew he himself would never feel good about taking that feeling of control away from Sasuke again. It probably only happened one time in ten anyway and it was hardly a big ask to let that one time go. It didn't matter because like Sasuke had pretty much said; when he was with him it was always amazing.

And Naruto realised that like before, he'd already dealt with this knowledge of what had happened and his own anger at it. It also made him realise that he was angrier with himself too. All the things they'd done, the things Naruto had done to him even after he'd been sort of told about this the first time burned themselves into his brain. He was angry at himself for not realising or even really thinking about it again after Sasuke had told him that first time what further damage Naruto might do to his sanity reminding Sasuke of things he probably wanted to forget about.

So he promised himself to never, ever, do that again.

* * *

It was a rare occasion that Sasuke went out anywhere by himself, but one trip he did do by himself with any sort of regularity was his trip to the library. He went through a lot of books nowadays because he had little to do but stay indoors. And he refused to become some sort of house wife that kept the apartment clean and cooked all of their meals just because Naruto worked and made a living and he did not. They shared chores equally but that gave Sasuke a lot of free time.

So Sasuke read. Everything and anything he could get his hands on whether he really found it interesting or not. Reading books on ninja techniques was frustrating when he couldn't practise what he was reading so he read everything else. And he was gaining a huge collection of knowledge about a large array of very specific subjects that no one would really care much about unless they had a pre-existing fascination with the subject matter.

For instance he now knew a lot about birds and could name just about any he saw. He also knew an alarming amount about art and art appreciation and had developed some very definite views about what was considered good art and what was glamorised finger painting. He had also gotten a good knowledge base on what alcohol went with what food dish which had been a fun night with Naruto testing the theory out on that one. But these were just examples. His unbiased consumption of literature meant many trips to the library usually with an Anbu detail in tow. Well he assumed they were there because he wasn't actually looking for them much anymore.

But if they were there, they surprised him by not really stopping him from doing anything. Not that he had tried to terrorize the village or anything, but he was surprised that they hadn't stopped him from talking to the young boy who seemed determined to gain Sasuke's attention and praise every moment he could. This of course was the young blond boy who Sasuke had saved from a vicious beating from his peers at Yule.

The boy must have remembered seeing the stack of books under Sasuke's arm that day and had been seen the next time Sasuke visited the library, loitering around out the front. He was very obviously not waiting to see if Sasuke would show up. A little too obviously actually and Sasuke had rolled his eyes as the boy had very casually said 'hi' in a tone that was probably meant to say, 'Well fancy meeting you here, what a surprise' but actually said, 'I knew you'd show up sooner or later.'

He had introduced himself as Kyo, and had apparently taken Sasuke's advice to heart about making himself stronger. Because ever since, whenever the boy learned something new Sasuke would 'happen' across him near the library and the boy would go into great detail about his latest and greatest technique.

Now normally Sasuke would tell the little brat to take a hike or ignore him completely. But he was also trying to take some advice given to him to heart as well, and that advice was 'fit in'. He didn't want to for the most part, but as Kyo became a more frequent interjection into his routine he slowly became more accustomed to having his little friend around and felt the want to be rid of him lessen with each new brag about the boy's latest training. It was to the point now where Kyo would wait patiently for Sasuke to get his new books before dragging Sasuke off somewhere secluded where he could show off his skill in private. Sasuke even found himself giving the odd bit of advice too, which had been a surprise even to him when he'd first started doing it. Normally he'd just sit there and watch Kyo impassively without hint of awe or enjoyment. But when Kyo started to get things wrong in what he was learning Sasuke had just started correcting him before he'd thought about it.

Kyo had loved it of course and now that it looked as though Sasuke was a little more involved in their generally one-sided conversations he turned up at the library more and more. He seemed to be able to get very good at estimating how long it would take Sasuke to get through his latest stack of books with disturbing precision. And this afternoon had been no different, though it had lasted longer than usual. Kyo had dragged him off to show Sasuke how good he was getting with his kunai throwing, which was in all actuality about the same as Naruto had been able to do at his age, which is to say pretty poorly. He could hit his target easily enough with a couple of throws but moving targets had him throwing them all over the place. This being something Sasuke could still do with an amazing degree of skill, and being in the mood for a little bit of showing off, had him spending the whole afternoon and some hours into the night either teaching the boy or giving him pointers. Kyo had gone home a thoroughly happy though tired student and Sasuke had just gone home confused about why he was bothering with the boy.

It was something to do, Kyo wasn't too annoying for a brat of about thirteen and he had to be honest, he sort of enjoyed having the respect of anyone after so long. Kyo glowed with any praise Sasuke threw him, called him Uchiha-sama or Sasuke-sama and bowed deeply whenever he said hello or goodbye. It was nice to feel a little respect again.

But Sasuke was late coming home and though Naruto had no real reasons to worry since he had an armed Anbu escort following him wherever he went, he still did. And when Naruto got worried, he got angry, and that usually meant night-long arguments. Sasuke just wasn't in the mood for that tonight. But his fears were for naught when he came home to find Naruto parked on the floor in front of the sofa, his wide eyes glued to the television and a couch cushion clamped tightly to his chest.

Sasuke came inside and set his books on the couch and sighed.

"Naruto, I told you not to watch that ghost stories show. You can't deal with scary stuff like that."

Naruto was twenty now and had seen some of the scariest shit imaginable, not to mention the fact that he had a demon living inside of him, but mention ghosts to him and he'd be up all night starting at every creak and groan of the house. It would have been funny if it didn't annoy Sasuke so much.

Sasuke sat behind Naruto, a leg on each side and absently ran his fingers through the back of Naruto's hair near his neck. Normally Naruto loved this but tonight it made him jump and swat Sasuke's hand away.

"Teme, stop it."

"Calm down, you're too old to get scared by this shit anymore."

"I'm not scared!" Naruto told him hotly. But Sasuke didn't miss the fact that Naruto had put an arm around his leg.

"You have this weird fetish for being scared that I will never understand. You know none of this is true right?"

"I'm not an idiot Sasuke," Naruto told him scathingly before jumping at a loud noise from the TV.

"Could've fool me. Have you eaten yet?"

"Yeah, there's some of that chicken thing in the oven for you if you're hungry."

Sasuke had indeed been hungry before that news. The chicken thing didn't actually have a name it was just what they both described the only chicken dish Naruto knew how to make. Where the chicken actually factored into the dish Sasuke didn't know because for some reason it always ended up tasting more like tuna.

"Pass."

He'd started to play with Naruto's hair again without realising it till Naruto flinched and smacked his hand away again. "Stop it!"

"Make me."

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Naruto asked irritably.

"I do, but he's currently pretending to be a twelve year old girl and watching a stupid ghost show."

Naruto rolled his eyes and got to his knees before turning to face Sasuke.

"You know, there was this ghost on the show tonight who liked to kidnap men that look a lot like you to torture and murder them for sadistic pleasure. One night during a horrible lightning storm a handsome man with pale skin and dark eyes sought refuge in her house. Her father and brothers were away that night but she let the man take shelter anyway even though she got a bad vibe from him. But through the night he stole into her room and attacked her while she was sleeping. He tied her up out in the woods in the rain and tortured her and did other…bad things to her. Eventually in the end he killed her and buried her corpse in the woods where no one ever found it. But she stayed and haunted the house causing her returned family to move out. But then people would sometimes see lights on in the abandoned house. And travellers would go missing all the time. All handsome men with dark hair and eyes and it always rained when those men disappeared too. The villagers would find the bodies out in the woods, tied to a tree all with painful features frozen onto their faces but with no scratch on their bodies. The villagers said that sometimes you could hear the groans of a night-time but could never find the men in time to help."

"Do you even know how moronically stupid that sounds? Is that supposed to scare me that they look like me in some small generic way?"

"No, but I've suddenly understood why the ghost did it. If those men were anything like you I'd want to murder them too."

Sasuke smirked at him and activated his Sharingan. It wasn't very useful these days other than upsetting the people around him, but he could still make his eyes go red anytime he felt like it.

"There, now I don't fit the description. So when are we going to see the show when the ghost kidnaps blond haired, blue eyed morons?"

"Show off. But I reckon the ghost will see through it. We should go find that house and see how scared _you_ get."

As much as Sasuke enjoyed the simple experience of just simply being able to spend time with Naruto, having Naruto wedged firmly between his legs, a little smug smile on his face, hands resting casually on his thighs, high up on his thighs, put Sasuke in a totally different frame of mind. Especially when Naruto was freshly showered and only wearing loose sleep pants and nothing else.

Something must have shown in his eyes because Naruto's grin grew more pronounced as he leaned further forward and pressed his lips against Sasuke's. Sasuke had leant in a little in order to receive the kiss and Naruto took this moment to wrap his arms around Sasuke and drag him forward on the couch in order to press their bodies more firmly together. Sasuke wrapped his legs around Naruto's as Naruto reached up with a hand that wasn't currently holding Sasuke to him and slid the zipper down on the front of Sasuke's dark red shirt before running his hand roughly over newly exposed skin.

Sasuke moaned rather loudly and spent the next few moments trying to drag Naruto up onto the couch, which he succeeded at pretty quickly considering Naruto didn't need a lot of urging at this point. Now that they were laying, Naruto's lower half still between his legs, the upper half pressed warmly against him, Sasuke could properly feel Naruto's hardness press up against him through two layers of clothing. Naruto must have been able to feel it too but he did something odd in that moment. He stopped what he was doing completely.

Whatever had broken him out of his desire was at that moment unknown to Sasuke. Normally by this point it was clothes on the floor naked writhing flesh time, but Naruto sat up and blinked a few times. Everything looked normal except for the expression on his face. Sasuke could best describe it as scared. It sort of reminded him of the first time they had intentionally kissed. Naruto had been all wide-eyed in a 'what the fuck am I doing?' look that Sasuke hadn't liked the first time he'd seen it. He certainly didn't like it now.

"What's wrong with you?" Sasuke asked him perhaps a little too bluntly.

"Nothing," Naruto said clearing his expression and smiling. The smile looked off though like he was forcing it a little too much. He was lying. "Let's go to bed."

The invite was clear. He wasn't suggesting they stop and go to sleep so it wasn't like he was unwilling to have sex or anything. But this was perhaps the first time in the privacy of the apartment that they had ever changed locations for any reason. It didn't matter where it started or how uncomfortable it was, they never moved. Sasuke liked that, the mood was never broken and it felt more exciting letting go wherever they felt the urge to do it.

Not knowing what was wrong, or whether anything was actually wrong for certain, Sasuke let himself be led into the bedroom and dragged on top of his favourite blond where the kissing resumed. It wasn't until much later when he was lying in bed awake, staring at the ceiling and listening to Naruto's contented snores beside him that he realised what difference changing from the lounge to the bed had made to sex that night. Sasuke closed his eyes and shook his head in irritation when he realised what that difference was. On the couch, Naruto had initiated. He had been lying on top of Sasuke and the natural progression of that position would have Naruto eventually inside him. When they had moved, Naruto had dragged him on top and reversed that role. Sasuke hadn't really noticed at the time but he'd known something had been bothering him in the back of his mind and now he knew why.

Apparently their little discussion last night had really gotten to him. Naruto did not want to put Sasuke in a position where he might feel dominated or not in control. And if Naruto had been doing it for any other reason other than how much he cared for him, Sasuke might have been extremely angry that Naruto had let it get to him so much when Sasuke had drilled it into his head not to let it bother him.

But what Naruto didn't understand was that in those moments when Sasuke wasn't thinking about the past, when he was about to feel that overwhelming feeling of being filled and pleasured and actually enjoy it was what he really needed to experience more than Naruto being too careful and shying away. The fact that it hadn't occurred to Sasuke what their position on the couch would mean for him made it more of a pity that Naruto had stopped. It was rare that memories weren't bought to mind when it happened that way around and it was those rare moments he wanted to become more common through experience.

But ever-thoughtful Naruto had stopped because he'd probably thought Sasuke would be reminded of the past. Idiot. If only he knew. But it wasn't like he could wake the dobe up and demand he fuck Sasuke into a better mindset because that wouldn't work. Obviously no matter what he said, Naruto wouldn't believe he was over it and would refuse for what he felt was Sasuke's own mental well being. And Naruto had a point, Sasuke wasn't over it. But he never would be if he couldn't drown past experience in better memories of the here and now.

No, if he wanted to break Naruto out of his too caring attitude, he'd need to come up with a better plan.

TBC

* * *

_Notes: So firstly, welcome back! It's been a while since I played with this story in anything other than a little one-chapter special and it's nice to come back to it especially with a nice big chapter for you all. But no, the entire plot for this one isn't Naruto's stand offish mindset about sex, I actually started chapter 1 with the B Plot. The A Plot will come in next chapter or the chapter after. But what a B Plot huh? Sasuke actually wants to be dominated in a weird kind of sex therapy. Strange and admittedly a little out there, but interesting anyway methinks. Anyway, hope you liked chapter 1, chapter 2 shouldn't be too far behind._

_Oh and a BIG welcome back for PJ my beta! Yay! She is back just in time for the new instalment._

_Dash._


	2. The Teasing Game

_AN: So this is ubetaed. Sorry guys, but methinks my beta is a little busy but it was getting a little late since posting the last one. I'll repost the edited version later when it's available._

_This chapter is dedicated to Heartless Angel Sephiroth, my _first_ review for Chasing Away the Past. Perspective is a wonderful thing Seph, thank you for helping me readjust mine in a far better way *big smile* _

**Chasing Away the Past**

**Chapter 2**

**The Teasing Game**

Naruto stepped out of the bathroom and frowned a little when he saw Sasuke was still in bed. Well technically he was _on_ bed since the rumpled white sheets were clearly underneath him and not covering him up in any way. Not that the sight of Sasuke naked in his bed made him frown, but usually Sasuke was up and making tea by now or at least getting ready to take his own shower but this morning he was just lying there, stretched out _on_ bed and reading a book. It was the same book he'd been engrossed in all morning so far and was apparently too rapt with it to even get out of bed or acknowledge Naruto's presence at all other than to mutter 'good morning' earlier.

Well perhaps Sasuke was starting to get into the spirit of having time off and was finally being a little lazy. Good for him. So Naruto shrugged it off and went out into the other room to grab a freshly cleaned shirt out of the washing basket before re-entering the bedroom to finish getting dressed. However, when he saw Sasuke this time he stopped again.

Sasuke had moved to lay on his stomach, the book resting on a pillow while he read it, holding his upper body up just enough to read with bent arms, long legs spread out behind him and slightly apart. Naruto had to stop and admire this one for a little while. Sasuke was gorgeous, anyone could see that though it had taken Naruto longer than most to really appreciate the attractiveness like most others automatically did. To him Sasuke was special because Sasuke's personality, for some weird reason, had made itself special to him. Amongst the rudeness, the stubbornness and the surface disinterest was someone he could relate to, strive to live up to and wanted to please. The fact that it was wrapped up in such a nice looking package hadn't made itself really known until a little later. Actually it hadn't been until the time in the dark temple when he'd been unable to see Sasuke at all only feel him with his hands had he started to really appreciate what his eyes were missing. But Sasuke was beautiful with perfect muscle tone, cream coloured skin, dark penetrating eyes, glossy black hair, the fine lines of his sinewy body and on and on. He could see why the girls drooled over him. Though lucky for them he was so disinterested in girls generally because only someone truly in love with the whole of Sasuke, personality included, would be able to live with him for more than a week without wanting to murder the cocky self assured asshole in his sleep. And even then sometimes it could be a bit of an ask.

He wanted nothing more in that moment than to lick his way up that body, kiss that pale soft neck, slide his fingers into that beautiful ass and…

Naruto shook his head to clear it and started dressing, his eyes completely avoiding looking at Sasuke. He did entertain the notion for a moment of going over there and persuading Sasuke to make his morning in other ways, gods knew it wouldn't take much persuading and he didn't have anything else going on today, but Naruto hesitated. He was still a little uneasy about what he had almost done last night after promising himself not to. And the fact that he had just had thoughts about doing it again made it even worse. It was like being told you can't have something you loved and that invariably made you want it even more.

Besides, it wasn't like he couldn't have _any_ sex. He hadn't been lying to Sasuke the other night. He didn't think either way was better than the other, they were both amazing and different from each other in some ways. He still got to be with Sasuke, the sex was brilliant so why bother himself too much with losing one aspect of it?

_Because I can't have it any more_, Naruto decided. He figured that is all it really came down to in the end and he wouldn't let himself believe otherwise. At least for a few he was lying to himself. The reason it was different was because it usually reflected a different mood. When Sasuke took him he felt wrapped in warmth, completely and entirely possessed by him. But when he got the overwhelming desire to possess Sasuke the same way he would no longer be able to do that. It shouldn't bother him because that was pretty evil to think of one's own pleasure and want above someone who was hurting. So he attempted again to push it out of his mind and left the room thinking that boring morning television would distract him instead.

He was sitting on the couch when Sasuke emerged from the bedroom still reading his book and went to the kitchen as usual to make tea. Naruto was not watching him and so didn't realise Sasuke was wearing a pair of his own old faded shorts until Sasuke sat down on the couch with him, still reading his book and stretched out sideways making Naruto have to accept being a footrest or move. The shorts were old and loose on Naruto, on Sasuke who was a little slimmer than him around the hips they were pretty indecent. But it wasn't odd for Sasuke to borrow clothes to slouch about the house in considering he had very few clothes of his own.

"No training today?" Sasuke asked offhandedly without looking up.

"No," Naruto snapped without really meaning to.

"Want to spar later?" Sasuke asked apparently not noticing the tone.

"Sure," Naruto responding keeping his voice level and calm.

Sasuke still hadn't raised his eyes from the book yet and usually this gave Naruto the opportunity to perv without being teased for staring but he resisted the urge.

"What the hell has got you so interested?" Naruto asked gesturing to the book.

Usually Naruto knew what Sasuke was reading about because Sasuke sometimes commented on something weird and interesting he had come across, even if Naruto would find it boring as hell. Especially if he would find it boring as hell actually. But so far he hadn't said a word about it and Naruto wanted to look at his face more than anything right now because it meant he wasn't looking at his body. What Naruto forgot about was the dark eyes, the soft lips...

"Sex," Sasuke replied simply.

Naruto hadn't been ready for that response. Usually the answer was something mundane like 'frogs' or 'crop planting' so it took him a little while for his brain to register what Sasuke had actually said.

"What?"

"Did you know," Sasuke continued as though he hadn't just said something odd, "That pushing out with your muscles just before being entered might help prevent getting sore afterwards. Something about readying and relaxing the muscles as much as possible. I wonder if it's true. I've never really thought about it."

"What the hell kind of book are you reading?"

"I was surprised to find it at the library," Sasuke admitted. "I bet they didn't even know it was still there, it looks pretty old."

"You found an instruction guide for sex with guys at the library?"

"It's not instructional, it's a novel actually. But a handy tip is just that, right?"

"You're reading a gay romance novel?" Naruto asked still unbelievingly.

"No. It's just one scene really. For the rest of the book it's more buxom wenches than anything else but it gets really graphic."

"You _really_ need to get out of the house more. Besides, I don't need any handy hints. Like I said, I only get sore from overuse now, not because it even hurts at the time. But you get fucked for most of the day, every couple of hours of that day, for three days straight and you get a little sore."

"Hn." It was a thoughtful sound.

"What the hell does that mean?"

Sasuke did look up at him now, an unreadable expression on his face. "It only means 'hn'. If I had meant anything else by it I would have used more words."

"You know sometimes I really hate you teme."

"I find that completely believable," Sasuke told him nonplussed going back to reading. "Unlike what this guy is doing to the honest farmhand against the cowshed doors. He must have very strong leg muscles, that's all I'm saying."

Like most twenty-year old guys this led to an instant mental picture of fucking the delicious brunette he was watching in such a position or as close as his mind could get without really knowing what the scene was describing. Naruto almost bit through his lip.

"I don't want to know!" Naruto snapped. "Stop talking about it. It's all rubbish anyway."

Sasuke hid his profound smirk behind his book which was unbeknownst to Naruto actually about beekeeping and certainly contained no scenes about guy on guy sex. What had started out as a necessary step forward in his mental well being had turned into a game for him at some point. The whole concept behind it was a serious matter, but Sasuke found himself enjoying his new game anyway. Well it was certainly one way to combat the tedium of daily life, his new game of breaking Naruto. It might sound mean, but Sasuke fully intended to show him when it happened just how much he enjoyed the resulting sex so he'd never again question how Sasuke felt about it and Naruto could live guilt free.

In the meantime, he was going to have even more fun.

* * *

Sparring together was pretty rare. Sasuke understandably didn't want an audience because of his handicap and also sparring meant only taijutsu, really the only thing Sasuke could do with any degree of ability these days. Well as far as anyone knew, that was. So the training didn't really allow Naruto much practise in techniques he was currently working on so it wasn't much help to his training regime despite Naruto's arguments to the contrary.

"Kakashi-sensei is always telling me that I rely on chakra too much so I need practise," he told Sasuke as they walked to their chosen training ground for the evening. Since Sasuke didn't want an audience they tended to keep their sparring times to an evening when most people would have returned home for the day.

"Chakra is not something you are in short supply of," Sasuke reminded him.

"I can use it all up, you know how I do things," Naruto replied honestly. "Besides it bugs me how easily you win our matches."

Sasuke smirked at him. Sasuke didn't win all that easily truth be known, but he _did_ always win. However that was not going to happen tonight. Tonight Naruto was going to win because that's the way Sasuke planned on it happening.

When they got to the field they squared off and began their match. So as not to make it too obvious, Sasuke put up a good fight for at least twenty minutes but made sure to let his guard down. He over-extended one arm and predictably Naruto grabbed it. Pivoting, Sasuke turned into him and flipped him over. Naruto was quite strong though and hung on as he usually did whenever Sasuke tried to do something like this. Naruto used his own momentum to pull Sasuke over where they rolled for a few moments until Sasuke let himself be pinned to the ground. Well maybe 'let' wasn't exactly accurate, but he did manage to position the pair of them so Naruto was on top, pinning his hands to the ground but more importantly his lower half positioned in between Sasuke's legs just like he had been on the couch last night. Sasuke used his own legs to hold Naruto's in place so he couldn't move. It made it evident that though Naruto had won the tousle, Sasuke could still prevent him from getting up. Of course if this were a real fight against an enemy, Naruto would be in a ripe position to injure him further while Sasuke could do little about it, but now that he had him pinned Naruto wouldn't attack him further and Sasuke knew this.

Naruto who had failed yet to understand his position grinned at Sasuke. "So we've got each other pinned, now what?"

"Now we see who wins," Sasuke told him with a half smile. He raised his hips just enough to make contact with Naruto and ever so slightly ground against him.

Normally this sort of public display was a 'no go'. So far nobody seemed to realise what was going on between the two of them and both seemed to like that just fine. Sasuke suffered enough public scrutiny as it was and there was also the possibility that Tsunade might be forced to get a less bias jailer to watch over Sasuke if it ever came out that Naruto was in love with his criminal charge. But it was rapidly turning into full night now and nobody seemed to be around so Sasuke figured it was safe enough to tease Naruto a bit.

At first Naruto had closed his eyes to the sensation of Sasuke languidly rubbing up against him but as he went to reciprocate his eyes flew open and he released Sasuke like Sasuke's hands were on fire. He still couldn't move much because Sasuke had his legs trapped but he could at least get onto his knees and break contact with Sasuke's teasing.

"All right," Naruto grinned nervously. "You win, I give. C'mon we'd better get home, I'm getting hungry."

He could have pushed it, he could have held Naruto in place and refused to let him up but he wouldn't be able to tease him much anyway from this position so he let Naruto get to his feet and got to his own soon after, brushing himself off with quick jerky movements.

He was getting annoyed. He wanted to grab the dobe and demand to be fucked, but that wouldn't work and he knew it. Naruto must have suspected that Sasuke was lying about it affecting him and figured he was denying it as well so there was no way a rational conversation was ever going to work. And Sasuke was getting really pissed that he was losing his little game too. If he tried to pull this kind of shit with anyone else who wanted him he would have been down on all fours and halfway to heaven by now.

Oh well, the game wasn't over. He didn't have to admit defeat just yet.

* * *

He wasn't imagining that was he?

They weren't exactly the cuddling types. Sure it was nice to lay against someone, enjoy the closeness and the comfort once in a while and they always fell asleep touching each other in some small way, a hand draped over a chest, on a leg or whatever but it wasn't often that they fell asleep actually wrapped up in each other's arms. Partially because even now it still felt a little weird, partially because Sasuke sometimes twitched a lot in his sleep but mostly because Sasuke said that if Naruto's face was anywhere near his ear while sleeping Sasuke would go deaf through the night from the sound of his snoring.

But tonight Sasuke had grabbed his arm and rolled over causing Naruto to roll with him and to lie up against his back lest his arm get dislocated. Sasuke didn't say anything, didn't move again and so Naruto found himself tightly pressed up with Sasuke's warm back against his chest and his arm held in place around Sasuke's midsection in a tight grip.

It wasn't unpleasant, but it was a little strange. It was also strange to go to sleep without being soundly fucked into near unconsciousness either come to that. Sure they didn't do it every night Naruto was home, sometimes he was beyond tired from training and sometimes he needed a couple of days to recover from Sasuke's usual welcome home routine. But he never went without unless there were extenuating circumstances, none of which had happened today.

So although it seemed like Sasuke had quite contently dropped off to sleep without a worry, Naruto was a little restless. And now it seemed, though surely he must be imagining it, that Sasuke was very softly pushing back against him. Well his ass was anyway. Naruto could feel the curve of that wonderful ass push softly against his groin as Sasuke moved slightly in his sleep. What wasn't uncommon was that Sasuke moved in his sleep, generally when he was dreaming or having a nightmare and tonight seemed no different. His shoulders tensed occasionally, the hand holding Naruto's arm twitched a little and he pushed back against him, causing his ass to rub up against Naruto's crotch in very interesting ways.

Naruto wondered if he should wake him up. He was obviously dreaming and Sasuke never seemed to have any 'nice' dreams so it would probably be welcome for Naruto to wake him up right now. But unlike Sasuke's most vicious nightmares, he wasn't thrashing around or moaning, his breathing was still nice and even so Naruto let him be.

It was _not_ because Sasuke was rubbing up against him. Definitely not.

_You sick bastard_, Naruto thought to himself. _Sasuke _is _probably having a nightmare and you're letting him sleep because he's rubbing his ass up against your cock and it feels nice. Think about your promise!_

Naruto tried to free his hand but Sasuke's grip was surprisingly firm considering he was asleep. So instead he rocked forward and nudged him in the back with his shoulder. He didn't get a response.

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked. "Teme, wake up."

Sasuke stopped twitching and moving and became very still for a moment.

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked in a soft sleepy voice.

"Are you okay?"

"Mmmmm."

The sound was pretty weird coming from Sasuke. It was the sound a normal person would make when they took a bite of their favourite food after not being able to have any in years. Naruto didn't even know Sasuke could make a noise like that. Was it possible he was still asleep?

"Are you awake?"

"Naruto," he responded in that same soft, satisfied tone from before. That was when Naruto found his hand being guided over Sasuke's belly and pushed down the front of the loose pants he wore to bed. Sasuke pushed his hand up against a half hard erection and made the 'mmmmm' sound again adding a big sigh this time.

What the hell? Was Sasuke having some weird sex dream or something? He never generally guided Naruto to touch him, he didn't really need to most of the time. And besides his hands were usually too busy on Naruto's body than to worry about anything else. So Naruto figured he must be asleep.

But then Naruto had an interesting moral dilemma. What did he do? Sasuke wasn't awake, he probably didn't realise what he was doing. But if Sasuke had been awake, he would not have a problem with this anyway, of that Naruto had no doubts. So did he go ahead and jerk his near unconscious lover off, happy in the knowledge that Sasuke would enjoy it asleep or awake or did he try and wake Sasuke up more fully instead?

While he thought about it he realised his hand had wrapped around Sasuke and was doing it anyway.

With fingers tightly gripping Sasuke, Naruto leant in to run soft lips up Sasuke's neck raising goose bumps a earning him a pleased sleepy sigh. He really hoped Sasuke was more awake than he seemed. If Naruto woke him up, especially when he was dreaming, he might lash out considering Sasuke had a tendency to wake up violently from his dreams. Though admittedly that was only when he was in one of those thrashing around nightmare moments, not when he seemed peaceful and content. And while he wasn't exactly peaceful right now, he seemed content enough. But still…

"Sasuke, wake up."

"Mmmmm."

"If you don't wake up properly I'm going to stop."

"M'awake now. More."

It was the sleepiest most unconcerned demand in history and it made Naruto smile. But it was still a sign that Sasuke had at last woken up so Naruto didn't mind giving in to this demand without a fight. He continued to slide his hand along Sasuke's length while latching his lips onto the crook of Sasuke's neck and sucking on it.

Sasuke breathed out a sort of pleased groan in his next breath before repeating his demand. "More."

More? He was getting jerked off and his neck and shoulder bitten and sucked on and Naruto was a little confused as to what would constitute 'more' in this particular position.

"Faster?" he guessed.

"More," Sasuke repeated, again pushing back against him a little more forcefully than before causing Naruto to moan just a little bit too before the gesture really had a moment to sink in.

Did Sasuke want him to…?

_No, of course not. _

Naruto just figured he was still a little asleep and just pushing back against Naruto to ease the one-sidedness of the attention he was getting. Naruto realised his brain had just gone there because he'd been beyond teased by his own conscience today since Naruto had promised himself not to take Sasuke like that again.

It felt so good though with Sasuke's perfect ass pressed into his groin with such pressure. And this sleepy horny Sasuke was such a turn on too. Fucking him properly awake, just the idea of taking him was so tempting right now.

With a deep groan, and not out of pleasure this time, he stopped what he was doing and moved away enough to strip the sheets off the both of them and grab Sasuke's shoulder, pushing him onto his back.

Sasuke's eyes half opened and smiled lazily at Naruto who climbed over his body to kiss him deeply. But before Sasuke could hook a leg around him, Naruto moved down his body till he could wrap his lips around Sasuke's hardness and suck him in deeply.

* * *

Sasuke lay there stunned for a few moments, trying to think while Naruto sucked him thoroughly and oh so pleasantly.

_Damn it!_

It seemed as though Naruto wasn't going to fuck him after all unless this was some sort of foreplay leading up to it. But Sasuke knew this wasn't the case. When Naruto topped he was more impatient than that. He acted as though all he could think of was burying himself inside Sasuke and it wasn't till then that he slowed down, deeply thrusting, kissing him and holding him tightly. He wasn't a teaser like Sasuke was and so this was a pretty good indication that this was maybe all that was going to happen. Not that this wasn't good either. Naruto put his all into everything he did and now with a fair amount of practise under his belt, so to speak, Naruto had gotten good at making it feel amazing and making Sasuke come so very quickly it was like a short sharp shock to the brain.

It seemed more and more likely that Naruto wasn't getting the message, or if he was he was ignoring it almost completely. It was an amazing show of determination and caring and it was pissing Sasuke off. Well it might be if he wasn't currently getting his dick sucked by someone who seemed to have the sucking power of an industrial vacuum cleaner.

It didn't take all that long for Sasuke to come and when he did he lay there for a few moments afterwards, staring at the ceiling while Naruto lay back down besides him.

"I don't know what you were dreaming before that happened but it sure put you in a good mood," Naruto commented.

Sasuke hadn't been dreaming at all, he'd been faking the whole thing to get a reaction but it hadn't obviously worked. Oh well, he'd been trying to be nice about it, seducing Naruto into fucking him, but he felt too defeated to really keep going exactly how he had been. And he so badly didn't want to start demanding he be fucked because for one thing, it was getting demeaning, for another, Naruto wouldn't believe it was what he really wanted and that he might just be forcing it and for yet another because Naruto wouldn't be doing what he really wanted. He'd be forcing himself too to go against what he had apparently decided he wasn't going to do and it would feel obligatory and strained and that was something Sasuke _really_ wanted to avoid.

But there was always evil where good failed and Sasuke decided that if he couldn't tempt a fuck out of the dobe he would frustrate it out of him instead. He would see how close to his morals Naruto would keep the longer he went without some kind of relief from Sasuke.

Sasuke pulled the sheet up over him, turning again onto his side.

"I was dreaming about that time in the orb caves when I was sitting on you. Good night."

"Um, oh, okay. Night Sasuke."

He could only imagine how long it would take Naruto to get to sleep with a hard on and now reminded of a very hot moment of sex. Sasuke grinned into his pillow.

TBC

* * *

_Notes: Ooooo, evil. Despite the somewhat dark and angsty reasoning, I'm actually enjoying Sasuke's little game :) Poor Naruto though._

_Hope you liked your good morning present Kawaii Gaara lol._

_Oh and I hope you enjoyed perv Sasuke Gothpandaotaku :) _

_ **Unsigned Reviews:**_

_** Anonymous #1 – **I love Kyo too, he's so cute. No Kyo in this chapter but he should be in the next one :) _

_ Should get some more about Sasuke's past next chapter as well. Though it's a little dark I gotta say._

_ **Anonymous #2 – **Thanks, I'm happy you liked the other fics, I hope you enjoy this one just as much :)_

_ **Anonymous #3 – **Yay, I'm pumped that you're pumped :) Yeah definitely more Sasuke orientated. Can't say too much about the other villagers finding out just yet but *evil grin* you never know…_


	3. A Face From the Past

**Chasing Away the Past**

**Chapter 3**

**A Face From the Past**

Naruto woke up with a tongue in his mouth. He realised perhaps a tad too late that he had sucked the tongue further into his mouth before his mind had woken enough to not only understand what was happening but also to realise just who was molesting him so early in the morning. And molesting him was the right word since from his very first reciprocated gesture he felt an insistent hand tug his pants down and another hand palm him without so much as a 'good morning' first.

He kicked his pants off the rest of the way figuring that this was more like it. Last night it had taken him a long time to get to sleep after being thoroughly teased and then left to himself as Sasuke had dropped off to sleep. He'd felt a little abandoned at the time but since such a thing happened with almost no regularity it was forgivable. Especially since Sasuke's moods seemed weird lately to say the least. One moment he was all teasing playfulness, the next annoyed and uncommunicative. Okay so the last part wasn't so weird but it was worse than usual and therefore clear that something was up with Sasuke and Naruto was starting to wonder if it had something to do with him.

But this morning all seemed to be forgiven and he eagerly reached out for Sasuke, only to have Sasuke duck away from him, pushing him onto his back and scooting down his body to wrap tight lips around his cock.

The long drawn out moan of Naruto's was unstoppable by this point. Sasuke withdrew a little and slowly ran the flat of his tongue up the entire length before leaving off from the ministration and sliding up over Naruto's body to give him another long kiss.

"Morning," he greeted with a smirk.

"Mmmm-morning. Why'd you stop?"

"Good question."

When nothing else was forthcoming Naruto blinked the last of the sleep haze from his eyes and looked up into amused dark ones. "Um, Sasuke?"

"What?" he asked, reaching down and grazing fingers lightly over his still slickened shaft. But then he stopped again and did no more.

"Am I missing something here?"

"Wouldn't be difficult."

"Jerk. Why are you teasing me?"

"Entertainment."

Naruto rolled his eyes and grabbed Sasuke's waist, jamming their bodies together and grinding against him. "Funny asshole."

Sasuke leant down to kiss him again but just before their lips made contact there was a knock at the front door. Sasuke used the temporary distraction to free himself from Naruto's hold on him and rolled onto his feet by the side of the bed.

"I'll get the door," he said.

"Sasuke, wait! Damnit!"

Sasuke ignored the indignant cry with a satisfied grin and left Naruto sprawled naked on his bed with his hard-on and went to answer the door, but not before making sure to kick the door to the bedroom closed behind him.

Sasuke opened the front door to find one of the Hokage's staff standing at the door with a worried sort of frown on his face.

"Your presence has been requested at the Hokage's office," the messenger told him.

Sasuke matched the frown but his was more out of irritation than anything else. "Last time I looked I didn't have blond hair or a goofy grin. Is something wrong with your eyes?"

"I'm not here for Uzumaki-san. Uchiha Sasuke, your attendance has been requested by Hatake Kakashi. He said he needs to speak with you urgently but will be at the Hokage's Tower on business throughout the day."

Oh well, if it was Kakashi then it wasn't so daunting. Although he couldn't work out for the life of him why Kakashi would summon him.

He nodded to the messenger and shut the door, going back into the apartment to get dressed. Naruto was still where he had left him, naked, looking highly annoyed and still hard. He glared at Sasuke.

"Teme I-"

"I have to leave. Kakashi has summoned me to the Hokage Tower."

Naruto's annoyance lasted only a split second after that and he sat up swiftly, his face covered in concern. "Why?"

"I don't know," Sasuke replied shrugging and putting his shirt on. "They said it was urgent."

"I'm going with you," Naruto told him getting to his feet.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I don't need a babysitter."

"I'm going with you," Naruto repeated stubbornly.

Sasuke stopped dressing and looked at the stubborn though still concerned set to his features before giving up. "Okay fine, but I would suggest losing the hard-on beforehand."

Naruto looked down at himself for a moment before looking back up at Sasuke. "Make me."

Naruto's frustration seemed to be having some positive results at least. It sure seemed to be a lot harder to be embarrassed when you were so fucking horny all the time.

"No. And if you aren't out of the bathroom in five minutes I will leave without you."

* * *

He wasn't nervous; that would be stupid. But he allowed that he was a little…concerned as he walked into the building with Naruto at his side. It didn't help that Naruto was giving him the odd tense look as well, especially because Naruto didn't know half of what this might be about. It could be that this arrangement wasn't working out and the other villages had managed to talk the Hokage into finally killing him. It might have been because they had decided to take Naruto away as his warden because he only went out on the occasional mission these days and he was undoubtedly one of their best shinobi and they wanted him available more often. Both of these options were nasty and Naruto must have been thinking about them as well. But then there was the chance that it was because the Hokage wanted to check up on his surgery to make sure everything was working, or rather not working as the case was supposed to be. And what Naruto didn't know was that the surgery hadn't worked completely as planned and even now Sasuke's attempts to reawaken his chakra, while very slow going, were getting better bit by agonisingly slow bit. He might have been unable to perform the most basic of things to any degree just yet, but one intense look into his chakra pathways might reveal his well-kept secret.

But as it turned out, his previous concerns were for naught because when he did catch sight of Kakashi walking down the corridor, apparently on his way to the Hokage's office with a companion walking along beside him, Sasuke found a whole new range of emotions hit him full on when he got a good look at the face of the man Kakashi was walking with. Kakashi and the man stopped by Naruto and Sasuke, offered them a wave and a friendly, "Yo."

Sasuke didn't breathe for a good few long moments. He just stood there and openly stared at the undeniably handsome man standing beside Kakashi like what he was seeing couldn't possibly be real. He'd heard that this guy was dead, a fact he'd been quite happy about when he'd heard. But apparently this guy's ability to survive was better than Orochimaru's information network had been and that was impressive in itself.

And what made it worse was that Kakashi seemed to be watching him. He didn't appear to be overly interested, but Sasuke knew he was looking for a reaction. Of course this man used to be a close contact for Orochimaru; it wouldn't be a huge leap to figure out that Sasuke might have met the man at some point. It was lucky that Kakashi didn't know just how well Sasuke had known him.

"Sasuke-kun, you look well as always," the man drawled with a wide smile.

Sasuke had a sudden vision of punching him in the mouth and breaking every one of those perfectly straight white teeth.

"Yukio," Sasuke ground out. "I thought you were dead."

"Hah, when Orochimaru decides you're better off dead it's smarter to make him believe someone already beat him to it. But I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore. I heard you took care of that problem for me."

"You heard right."

Yukio's grin turned a little more smug now. "I also heard the price you had to pay for coming home. Must be hard, feeling so impotent after being so powerful."

Sasuke glared at him. "It might be if I felt that way. And it would be to any person's detriment if they thought I was powerless even without my chakra."

Unfortunately Yukio had hit a rather sore spot and Sasuke's reply probably was a little more forced that he had intended to make it sound. So the message wasn't received with as much menace as Sasuke had intended due to the fact that the man smiled quite warmly at him. He obviously didn't believe Sasuke was any type of threat anymore.

"Glad that you still see the positive even when things look so bleak. Good for you."

_Condescending prick._

Naruto, not understanding what was happening was looking between the two old acquaintances with a mystified expression. But luckily before Naruto could open his mouth Kakashi spoke instead.

"Well, if you two have finished catching up, we'd better get going. Sasuke I thought the messenger was going to call you in later in the day. I'll have to catch up with you later."

Sasuke glanced at his old teacher for a moment, his eyes narrowing. He was pretty sure Kakashi had just lied to him. He wasn't able to tell with the same degree of certainty as he could when Naruto lied to him, but Kakashi wasn't exactly trying very hard either.

Missing the flash of realisation, Yukio just winked at him before following Kakashi along the hall toward the Hokage's office. Sasuke stood there and glared at the man's retreating back until he disappeared from sight. When he'd gone Sasuke turned back to see Naruto watching him closely.

"Okay, I give. What the fuck was all that about?"

"Nothing," Sasuke replied tersely before beginning to head for the exit. It took Naruto a few moments of quick walking before he caught up to Sasuke just as he stepped out into the daylight.

"Don't give me that, Sasuke. Look I know the guy used to deal with Orochimaru and everything, but Yukio's been on our side since before you killed Orochimaru."

Well wasn't that nice; Naruto actually knew the guy though obviously not everything about him, thank the gods.

Sasuke rounded on Naruto so quickly that Naruto had to take a step back to avoid a collision with him. "Do you know what Yukio used to do for Orochimaru?" Sasuke questioned sharply.

"Well yeah, everyone does," Naruto replied a little nervously, obviously unsure where Sasuke was going with this. "He used to collect scrolls on ancient and forbidden jutsus for him. But then Orochimaru started to believe he was withholding stuff and selling scrolls to other people and tried to have him killed. So he came to us and offered information and made a deal in exchange for the information and any scrolls he found for us to protect. He said we were the only village strong enough to protect both him and the scrolls."

"So he went to the Hokage only when his life was in danger. If Orochimaru hadn't suspected him he would have kept doing it and you think that makes him an ally?"

"Look, not everyone can have the great change of heart you did, Sasuke. Sometimes it takes something a little more dire to make people do the right thing. He could have just kept doing the same thing for another power-hungry rogue shinobi, but he came to us. That counts for something."

"You're too trusting," Sasuke told him derisively. "What makes you think he isn't doing that anyway and just giving the Leaf the bare minimum of what he's found in exchange for his protection?"

"Well for one thing, he doesn't need protection anymore thanks to you but he still keeps coming back. That's gotta mean he's a good guy."

"No dobe, it just means he's smart. He'll use the Leaf protection against the next powerful shinobi he wrongs. It's better to keep good faith now than to have to crawl back when things go badly for him again."

Naruto was watching him now pensively. It wasn't like Sasuke to go off on a tirade about something like this easily, so naturally some of what Sasuke was saying was getting through to him.

"How can you be so sure he's a bad guy? How do you even know what he's going to do? He said Orochimaru accused him without reason the first time, that he was just a merchant before all this happened."

"I know these things because I know _him_. I know he was cheating Orochimaru because I am the one who found out about it. And if I had been the one sent out after him he would be dead right now. He was never simply a merchant, more like a failed shinobi. He is not to be trusted."

"You really hate this guy," Naruto stated unnecessarily. "Do you really care that much that he wronged Orochimaru?"

"No, of course not."

"I get that you think he's a bad guy and everything, but you looked ready to kill him. I mean considering what you've been through, I would think you'd be the last person to hate someone just because their moral compass points a little south, don't ya think?"

"I'm not like him!" Sasuke hissed turning away and beginning to walk away again. "And it would be in your precious village's best interests to let the Hokage know what he's really like."

"Hey Sasuke, it's your village too, you know!" Naruto called after him, but Sasuke ignored him and just continued to walk away.

* * *

"Sasuke, wait."

It surprised Sasuke that it wasn't Naruto's voice that called out to him. Naruto might not have followed him when he first left the Hokage's Tower, but he figured that sooner or later Naruto would find him and either question him further, apologise or _something. _But it wasn't Naruto who had run to catch up to him. When he stopped to look back it was Kakashi standing there, watching him, thankfully minus his previous companion. He must have escorted Yukio to Tsunade and then hurried to catch up to Sasuke.

"You did that on purpose!" Sasuke hissed accusingly.

Now, so far contact with his old teacher had been pretty limited. It wasn't like Kakashi seemed to hate him, but his old teacher didn't act very familiarly with him either. There was a lot of past regret on both sides here and both of them obviously needed time to deal with it. But Sasuke wasn't thinking about that now, right now he was too angry.

Kakashi walked the last few steps towards him and shrugged. "Did what, exactly?"

"Don't pretend ignorance. You knew I knew him; you arranged that 'accidental' meeting on purpose."

"That's an interesting theory. And why would I have done such a thing?"

"You wanted to get my reaction. Why, what could me not liking him prove to you?"

"Actually I won't know that till I find out why you don't like him," Kakashi replied casually. "Did you stare at him like you wanted to kill him because of personal reasons or just because he wronged your master?"

"The master I killed you mean?" Sasuke shot back.

"So I take it that isn't the reason then," Kakashi correctly guessed. "I'm sure Naruto told you about the relationship he now has with the village." Kakashi seemed to be digging for something, something about Yukio.

"You don't trust him," Sasuke guessed, calming down a little in the face of a possible ally.

"I have suspicions. But he brings in the goods so the Hokage is always generally pleased with him."

"Sure he'll bring you the dregs of what he finds to keep on her good side. But I doubt a traitor like that will mend his ways so easily."

"Not to sound ungrateful for your return, but you want people to believe you've mended your ways, right?"

"Mostly I don't care," Sasuke replied honestly. "But that's because I have nothing to hide. It's the apparently reformed traitors who try too hard that you should be watching. He was wearing some pretty fine clothes, I bet the village doesn't pay him all that much for what he brings in. Makes you wonder what else he's selling to whom."

"I take it you don't trust him. Be honest: I don't want your opinion solely based on some personal bad blood between the two of you."

"I wouldn't trust him with a used tissue and if your Hokage has any brains at all, she won't either. We have had personal…differences. But that doesn't mean I would lie about his motives. He isn't someone you want knowing secrets about the Leaf Village."

Kakashi nodded as though he'd figured most of this out for himself already. "You told this to Naruto?"

"More or less."

"Then he's probably gone to talk to the Hokage. He trusts you, you know."

"I'm not using him to get revenge on my enemies," Sasuke replied darkly, not liking the implications of that last remark. "If it wasn't for him, I would have killed Yukio the moment I saw him. But I know he trusts me not to do things like that anymore. I betrayed that trust in the past; do you really think I want to do it again after losing so much to come back here?"

"Okay, I believe you. And I think I might go join Naruto. The Hokage needs to know that you aren't the only one who believes he can't be trusted."

Kakashi left him there, standing in the street and dumbfounded by the lack of argument. It had been as though Kakashi had only spoken to him to reaffirm his own theories about Yukio, and Sasuke for that matter too. Sasuke got the impression that he hadn't said anything that Kakashi didn't already suspect, even though that last part was something he wouldn't normally share with another person so freely.

Sasuke wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or worried about that.

* * *

Sasuke wandered for a good long time after his discussion, or was it confrontation, with Kakashi. Soon though, he decided to return home. He couldn't be angry with Naruto, not even after his questioning about Yukio, because of what Kakashi had said. Naruto was just asking questions, but ultimately he did trust Sasuke and would share what Sasuke had told him with the Hokage whether he believed it himself or not.

All because of trust.

Now if it would only work the same way in return. Not that Sasuke didn't trust Naruto, he did. Implicitly. But Naruto didn't seem to believe that so much these days and Sasuke was still eager to prove him wrong. Even with the appearance of Yukio who had been one such individual to make Sasuke not trust anyone anymore. Actually it made him want Naruto to understand this even more as though Naruto could scrub the foul feeling from his mind with his own warmth and affection.

But it was not to be. Naruto wasn't home yet and with no distractions, Sasuke decided to take his books back to the library and get some new ones instead. It would waste some time till Naruto got home at least.

Sasuke was just nearing the library and stepping past a huge maple when a shadow darted out in front of him with a yelled, "Hah!"

Luckily for the boy, Sasuke was half expecting something like this or the boy might have been in a lot of pain right now because of Sasuke's still deadly reflexes.

"That's a good way to get yourself killed, Kyo. Don't you have a home to go to?"

"Mum's working late and my brother is on a mission. Nobody will miss me," Kyo replied with a large smile after his usual bow. "Guess what? I'm learning how to run up trees."

"Fascinating," Sasuke remarked sarcastically.

But his response only made Kyo's grin more pronounced. "Admit it Sasuke-sama, you're dying to come watch me and my greatness. I want to show you how good I've gotten."

Sasuke couldn't help giving the boy a half smile at his blatant refusal of Sasuke's coldness towards him. It reminded him a lot of Naruto sometimes.

"Have you been waiting here all day?" Sasuke asked curiously. "I don't usually come here this late."

"Actually I was just walking home when I saw you. Honest! So c'mon, I know you can give me a few good tips and my team mates will be _so _jealous of me if I master it before they do."

"And what makes you think I want to assist you to be a show off?"

"Because you're one too," Kyo replied with an innocent grin. "C'mon, just an hour?"

Well he'd wanted a distraction.

"Fine. Wait here. I'll get my books first."

* * *

The library was generally open till very late at night. Shinobi came in at all hours for research even though there weren't many general members of the public in here at this time. The library catered to both sorts of people and even though at this time of night there were a few ninja around, Sasuke managed to mostly avoid them because he was not after the same kind of books they generally were. He was in the general non-fiction section looking through a few titles when he noticed out of the corner of his eye a black cloaked figure watching him. When he turned to get a good look at them though, the person had disappeared and was nowhere in sight.

ANBU.

Sometimes when he spent too long in a building they would come in just to check if he was still there. They often did this when he was in the library but they never seemed to hang around. One would come in, check up, and then disappear for twenty minutes or so, probably to go back outside and wait for him to leave or until the time they figured he needed to be checked up on again.

Normally Sasuke could forget that they were there, but it was difficult to hide from him in a place like this so he always noticed when they checked up on him. And because of what had been done to Sasuke, they didn't bother to hide their chakra signatures at all because Sasuke should not be able to detect them and vice versa. And most of the time he couldn't, this was true, but sometimes he'd get the little tingle that told him someone was around. It was faint but there all the same, and it had to be a pretty strong signature for him to detect it no matter how hard he tried, which is why he probably didn't sense the one emanating from the person on the other side of the bookcase at this moment.

He looked back at the titles and scanned through them waiting for something to catch his eye when he saw a large thick black book with an Uchiha crest on the spine. Never in all the times Sasuke had been here had he noticed such a book before. So, curiously he took it down and saw that it was a clan family history. Something had been wedged in between the pages in the middle of the book and he flipped it open to the page to see what it was. As soon as he opened it there green powder puffed into his face, getting into his eyes and going up his nose. He shut his eyes and dropped the book, trying not to inhale any more than he had and crouched down, ready for an attack.

It only took a few seconds though before he felt dizzy and drowsy and his knee hit the floor in an attempt to keep himself upright longer. When he managed to open his eyes again he was surprised to find that he had collapsed onto the floor and directly in front of his eyes he could see a pair of sandled feet.

He was fast losing consciousness, no matter how hard he fought against it. He thought he heard a voice above him remark, "Don't fight it, pretty pet. You know I always get my way in the end," just before his eyes closed all on their own and he sank into blackness.

TBC

* * *

_Notes: Hello to Plot A! Holy crap I give Sasuke a lot of stuff to deal with and even now I can't seem to leave him alone *sigh* but oh well, gotta have some tension somewhere. I realised perhaps a little too late how much I have now deviated from the happy fun times of the first two chapters into territory that is potentially very dark. You've just read a couple of chapters of light heartwarming fluff and now I smack you all with the agnsty stick. But I promise there is method to the darkness so hang in there :)_

_ Many many thanks to OperaGirl for feedback for this chapter. I hopes you feel the love *big smile*_

_ Dash._

_**Unsigned Reviews:**_

_**Guest #1 – **Ya gotta love the teasing game. So much fun lol._

_**Guest #2 – **Thanks, glad you liked the chapter :) It is funny and yeah a little sad I totally agree. A huge part of me just wished Naruto would give in._

_**Helisse – **Yes that little tease *evil grin* I could have kept going with that game for a lot longer even though it might have been too tempting just to let Sasuke get his devious way and have Naruto snap after all haha._

_**Saby a – **Who doesn't like evil horny Sasuke, it's so much fun to play with :)_

_**Yu-chan – **Yay, epic review chat! *does a little dance*_

_Yeah, there has been a few weird changes it took me a little while to get used to it too. Wouldn't let me sign in for ages at one point._

_Oooo freshman huh? Oh don't worry higher education will give you lots of time to learn new things including night before cramming, late essay migraines and oh, my personal favourite: getting off tits and showing up for class drunk a lot. Erm insert Dash's 'don't try this at home kids' warning or something here. _

_Oh yeah, the review *looks sheepish*_

_I haven't had anything deleted yet so fingers crossed but that sucks that your stories got deleted. I hear it's happened to quite a lot of people now so I figure it's just a matter of time for me…_

_But glad I could give you your dose of yaoi *grins* _

_Yeah perverted Sasuke seems to be a winner for lots of people. So much fun to write him like that. I had meant to have a Sasuke birthday special for this but I got too caught up with Remember Me and now this that I didn't quite have the time. Oh well, next year hopefully and there is always Naruto's birthday too. Aw I love slightly clueless Naruto though too. So cute ;)_

_I really must start up a Dashionary for new words. I like making up words too and we two are not the only ones. Hrm, perhaps I can put it up on my profile page or something along with who thought it up. That would be fun. Yes, I'm easily amused haha. _


	4. Missing

_**AN: okay, so I promised most of you that the chapter would be out sooner and it wasn't. I always said I would try to release chapters on time barring bad health, death and personal tragedy. Well I'm as physically healthy as I usually am and am obviously not dead… Yes this past week I have suffered a deep personal tragedy which I will not go into here except to explain why I was late in posting and while posts in the future might be a little sporadic in the coming few months. Please understand what I am going through and given time I'm sure I'll get back to something resembling my old self but please have patience with me for the time being and I will greatly appreciate it. Luckily for those of you reading this fic chapter 4 was pretty much finished before things happened and chapters 5 and 6 have also had a large chunk written as well so impact on this fic in particular will be light and I shouldn't require a time out. For more information on how this affects other fics I am writing please visit my profile page.**_

**Chasing Away The Past**

**Chapter 4**

**Missing**

It had been half an hour already and Sasuke still hadn't come out of the library. It wasn't odd for Sasuke to sometimes take his time selecting his books, but he generally didn't take this long when he knew Kyo was waiting for him. Besides, it was late already, his mother would get home from work in a couple of hours from her nightshift and he really wanted to show Sasuke what he could do before he went home.

So Kyo entered the library and looked around till he found Sasuke sitting at one of the back study tables reading a big thick book, totally absorbed. He walked up to the table and leant on it trying to read what Sasuke was, though Kyo was trying to do it upside down and wasn't having a lot of luck.

Sasuke looked up at the interruption and scowled. "What do you want?"

"Just wondering what you were so absorbed in. I don't want to be pushy Sasuke-sama but it's getting pretty late. I really wanted to show you-"

"Get lost," Sasuke replied coldly, looking back at the book.

Kyo frowned. Sasuke could be cool at the best of times, but he usually wasn't quite so harsh with him. Kyo reached out a hand, his fingers resting against the book Sasuke was trying to read in order to get his attention. "But Sasuke I-"

Sasuke raised his eyes once more and glared at the boy. "If you do not stop annoying me and remove your hand I will break each and every one of those fingers. Do you understand, kid?"

Kyo snatched back his hand and looked at Sasuke with wide hurt eyes. "Sasuke, are you okay?"

Sasuke didn't answer, just continued to glare at him with such coldness and malice that Kyo backed away and left without another word.

* * *

Sasuke had the most unpleasant sensation of waking up with sore arms and being very cold. He was a little too groggy at first to understand why but when his wits started to return he realised it was because he was tied up outside and naked. His arms were stretched up over his head, rough rope digging into his wrists, which had been slung over a tree branch above him. He was practically hanging by his arms, his body stretched, his toes barely touching the cold ground beneath him as he tried to gain enough purchase with them to ease the pain in his arms. He must have been hanging here for a while to judge by the pain and it took his eyes a little while to focus in order to see that it was still full night and that there was a figure sitting opposite him, watching him with the faintest of smiles on his face.

"I could watch you squirm all night tied up like that, pet. You must have been having some nasty dreams because you were thrashing around there a little for some time. You even made your own wrists bleed. It's almost a pity you had to wake up, I was having such a good time watching you writhe."

Sasuke didn't say anything to that. Why bother? Yukio always used to get off on the idea that he'd caused embarrassment or pain. Acknowledging that he was getting to him in any way would only make things worse.

"You're glaring pretty pet. I would have thought you'd be happier to see me. We used to have such good times together."

"For you maybe."

Yukio got to his feet and slowly began sauntering over towards him. "Tut tut, pet, you shouldn't lie to me. You think I don't remember seeing your face when I made you come? Such naked pleasure. I always did enjoy watching you, you know. Did you know, I used send you off with only one scroll at a time for your master, no matter how many I had to give to him, just so I could get you to come back more often? It was my greatest disappointment when I had to break ties with your master and that I wouldn't get my play time with you anymore. But look, fate seems to smile on me. Imagine my pleasure when I learnt that you were now living in the only village that welcomes me with open arms. And to further learn that you'd been stripped of your powers too, it was like a dream come true. I figured that we could visit with each other just like old times, whether you wanted to or not, because without your powers you're even weaker than I am."

"Don't count on it," Sasuke warned him.

"Oh I'm sure you can still throw a better punch than me. But that counts for nothing when you can't sense an ambush coming. The old Sasuke would have sensed me the moment he entered the library. And you forget, I might not have made it as a village shinobi, but I still can use my chakra, unlike you. And I have all these interesting scrolls to teach me all manner of useful techniques. I had an interesting one in particular I thought to use on you, but I fear you've spoiled my future plans because you just couldn't keep your opinions to yourself. I'm being called in to see the Hokage again tomorrow to explain these accusations. But I wonder, if I tell Tsunade-sama every little dirty secret about our past together and then tell her that you just hate me in a fit of lover's spite because you think I betrayed you, would she believe you or me? I can be very convincing, after all. I remember every inch of that fine body of yours and could provide her with a great many details as proof of our past. Also, as I see it, I have been assisting the Leaf for years, whereas you are a traitor nobody even now trusts completely. Who do you think she will believe?"

Sasuke honestly didn't know. Tsunade didn't seem to like him much at all whereas Yukio had been working for her for years. If Yukio were to lie and say Sasuke was just trying to set him up because he didn't like him, Sasuke couldn't guess whom she might believe.

"Of course," Yukio continued, "If you were to retract what you said I might be convinced to keep my own silence on the matter. Especially if you go along with picking up where we left off. It wouldn't be much of a hardship, I'm only here once a month or so. And I don't believe you are so disgusted with the idea either. I told you I remember that beautiful body of yours pretty pet, and I also remember how to please it."

"I wouldn't count on that either."

"Oh please. I remember those moans, you can't say you didn't enjoy it."

"Yes, I can."

It occurred to Sasuke then that the ANBU guards hadn't come to his rescue. It was entirely possible of course that they despised Sasuke so much that watching him get tied up and taunted might make them happy enough to just sit back and watch. But this guy had by now openly proclaimed himself as a liar. It might be one thing to see someone you hated get their comeuppance, but it would be an entirely different thing to let a traitor to the village just stand here and gloat.

Despite Sasuke's care, Yukio saw him looking around though and grinned massively. "I might not be much of a ninja, but I can made a shadow clone look like you enough to fool your stalkers for a few hours. You have no real chakra signature anymore, there's no way for them to realise they've been duped till I release the clone. Your guards think you're still reading the in library so don't worry, they won't be interrupting us for a good long while yet."

And that was pretty much that. No one would be looking for him, he was on his own. Naruto might to start to worry like he usually did when Sasuke was late coming home, but Sasuke hadn't been in the best of moods the last time they'd spoken so it wasn't strange to assume that Sasuke might try to avoid him for a little while. He would worry, but he wouldn't go looking if he thought Sasuke wanted to be alone. Even Kyo would probably give up waiting for him if it got too late. The idea that he might need rescuing didn't sit happily with Sasuke anyway, but on the other hand, if he didn't manage to get out of this on his own, worse things than being rescued were going to happen to him.

"What if I don't tell them I was wrong?" Sasuke asked.

"Well then I have the unpleasant decision of choosing between taking you when I leave and getting to fuck you every time I feel like it or killing you and staying and in doing so keeping the protection of the village. And while you are such a pretty little pet, you aren't the only entertainment in the world or even this village. You are replaceable, albeit not easily while Konoha protection is not so replaceable. I would rather have both you and the village of course, but that will depend entirely on you."

So those were this choices, keep going telling the truth and hoping against all real hope that the Hokage would believe him over Yukio or bow to Yukio's wishes and be used every time Yukio was in town and giving up a lot of his dignity in the process.

"If it helps to sweeten the deal, I will tell you that I already have your replacement in mind. But I don't think you'll like it."

"Who?"

Yukio looked smug when he replied. "That little sweet blond boy I saw you talking to. I think you have a soft spot for him."

Sasuke stared at him for a moment longer before bursting out laughing. Usually he wasn't one for such shows of humour but this was especially funny to him.

"Naruto? You think you have a chance of forcing him to do anything for you? No please, try it. I _mean_ it. I want to watch when he violently turns you down, I will enjoy that."

Yukio let the laughter settle down before speaking again. "Uzumaki Naruto? Hmmm, tempting, he is very cute. But I'm not as stupid as you think I am to try anything with the hero of Konoha. No, no. The one you were talking to outside the library, I think you called him…Kyo?"

Sasuke was stunned, the smile quickly being wiped from his face. "He's only thirteen."

"Nearly fourteen so I hear. Doesn't matter much, you were only much the same age the first time, weren't you pet?"

"I was an _older_ thirteen."

"Hah, yes. I can remember you glaring at me even then. Even less compliant then than you were when you were fifteen. Of course you became more attractive as you grew older as well, but it's always nice to start the bond at a younger age, it prepares them for the years to come. Oh don't scowl so. No matter what, I will always think of you as the pretty pet. But this boy, I think I will call him my sweet pet. He looks like he will taste sweet, don't you think?"

"All you will be tasting will be blood if you touch him," Sasuke told him darkly.

"Ah, I thought you might feel a little protective. You've changed so much Sasuke, I never thought to see you so protective on another person. Good for you and your personal growth. So, do we have a deal?"

Sasuke thought about this carefully, which was difficult considering all he could think about was taking the man in front of him apart piece by bloody piece. Of course the easy option would just be to kill him and be done with it. No loss of pride, no threat to Kyo, just an evil man buried in the woods where nobody would find him or miss him. His disappearance could be blamed on any reason and although Sasuke might have spoken out against him earlier, he doubted he would be a suspect seeing as at this moment he was apparently sitting in the library reading, which could be confirmed by at least three ANBU.

So that was the plan, appear to agree and when he untied Sasuke to start the 'fun' Sasuke would kill him. Shouldn't be too hard. Even without being in peak form Sasuke was deadly against a relatively unskilled opponent like Yukio.

"Alright. I will tell them I was mistaken first thing tomorrow. Does that suit you?"

Yukio smiled. "Greatly. I knew you would come around. You will enjoy our times together Sasuke, I promise you."

"Whatever. Just untie me."

Yukio smiled even wider. "Oh, I'm not going to untie you. How stupid do you think I am? Besides, you look too delicious hanging up there like that, all stretched out and taut. No, tonight I think we'll try a little bondage ay?"

_Just fucking great._

Yukio saw the look that news bought and almost laughed. "Ah the look on your face right now! I have missed my entertainment so much, pet."

_Entertainment. _

It was the second time tonight that Yukio had called what they did 'entertainment'. A small sick part of his memory poked him then as he remembered how he'd used to refer to his relationship with Naruto as entertainment.

"_Why do you say things like that? Why do you like teasing me so much anyway? Why do you like doing anything with me? You don't like me at all. I always thought that you had to like someone to have sex with them. You don't even think of us as friends. But _you_ don't have to like them. You treat it like…entertainment."_

Of course that was before he'd admitted his true feelings to his friend. But it made him sick to his stomach to realise he'd been using the same justification for not feeling anything by just saying it was fun, entertainment, it didn't mean anything. Even with the denial of emotions, what he and Naruto did was not even in the same hemisphere of feelings and experiences as what had happened to him at Yukio's hands. But to think that he had still tried to distance himself with the same internal reasoning as he had with Yukio was pretty disgusting to now realise.

Sasuke briefly and weirdly considered that if he was fucked tonight by this demented sadist whether it would be counted as cheating. True it wasn't exactly a choice he'd made freely, but if he didn't have a chance to kill Yukio and he chose this in preference to Yukio going off and raping a thirteen year old boy did that mean it was technically cheating? If Naruto ever found out about tonight with Yukio would he be pissed at Sasuke, Yukio or both? Would he see it as something Sasuke _had_ to do or would he feel betrayed?

_Why am I even thinking about this? Naruto would never think like that._

Honestly what Naruto would think was the least of his problems right now but his brain had just reached for some random thought to think about, something painful to take his mind off the even more painful thing that was about to happen to him.

He knew why his brain had gone on a time-out. It was something he had gotten used to doing at times like this and that was tune out. It had been so long he'd been in this sort of situation that he'd forgotten he even did it. But Yukio had placed his hand on Sasuke's chest and was firmly running his palm over stretched muscles. The touch made Sasuke tense up immediately.

"I know you used to enjoy this pet, at least sometimes," Yukio told him, watching his own hand caress much missed pale skin while Sasuke continued to glare openly at him. "Sometimes you would come despite yourself. Sometimes you would groan out of pleasure."

"Pain," Sasuke corrected him.

"Such a fine line sometimes, between the two. It didn't sound so different from pleasure to me."

"I doubt you've heard a pleasurable groan from anyone you've fucked in your entire life."

"Making me angry won't make me stop," Yukio told him. "Besides, even when you try you only amuse me anyway so there's not much point for you to say such things. It's funny though, but I missed the moments when you seemed to actually enjoy yourself more than anything else. Normally I wouldn't care, but the noises, seeing your face when you let go… ah, I've dreamed about such things in the last couple of years. You must be almost twenty one now, can you believe how the years have flown past?"

"Do you want to talk to me, or do you want to fuck me?"

Yukio did look up at him then. "I do want to hear your voice, but not exchanging our usual pleasantries. I told you I have a jutsu I wanted to try out on you. If it works I will hear you moan, plead and beg for me to touch you. Don't get me wrong, I do love that defiance you have, it makes breaking through that defiance all the sweeter in the end. But I want to hear you moan even more."

"What jutsu?"

Yukio grinned and started making hand signals and Sasuke activated his Sharingan without meaning to. It was pointless, he didn't have the kind of chakra control needed to utilise it enough to read into the hand signals to work out what was being done to him. But old habits died hard and he did it straight away and tried to follow what was happening. But then…

It was over before he got most of it, but the important thing was that it had almost worked. For months now he'd been sneakily trying to regain _some_ control over his fractured chakra network with some little success. But this was the first moment of real breakthrough for him. He'd seen the way the chakra in Yukio reacted to the hand signals for at least part of the jutsu!

His elation was short lived though. Once the jutsu was completed he felt a tingle run over his skin, which didn't seem to want to go away. It was like all of his nerves were really alert, so much so that he could feel the cool breeze against his skin as though they were fingers sliding over him. His mind went fuzzy as though he hadn't slept in days or was drunk or something and he couldn't think properly. He almost cried out when Yukio touched his stomach again.

"Nice, isn't it?" Yukio commented watching Sasuke's face closely. "You can understand why it's been forbidden can't you? Apparently an ancient lord used to get his shinobi to perform this on his concubines so they would beg to be touched. Apparently it's addictive too."

Sasuke was incensed. Wasn't it enough that he was going to be fucked by this nauseating asshole but his body had to be tricked into liking it too? Yukio had removed his hand and already Sasuke felt its loss like his arm had been cut off. No wonder those girls had begged to be touched, when you weren't being touched it was agonising. His mind swooned and he lost his precarious balance and let himself hang by his arms again. Even the painful tug of the rope around his wrists was better than nothing.

"I think me that you're going to moan plenty, pretty pet."

"I'm going to kill you," Sasuke ground out.

Yukio grinned. "Somehow I doubt that."

* * *

Naruto got it, Sasuke was still pissed. But even though Sasuke had been pissed when they'd parted before, Naruto had figured that Sasuke was more pissed at the scroll merchant and his very existence rather than at Naruto. So while he wasn't surprised that he hadn't seen Sasuke for the rest of the day, he started to get a little anxious when it got later and later and Sasuke still hadn't shown up at home.

Even though Sasuke had no real evidence other than his word that Yukio was bad news, Naruto had still dutifully gone and told Tsunade about Sasuke's suspicions thinking that it couldn't hurt for Yukio to at least attempt to rebut the accusations. Sasuke could get bent out of shape about lots of things all ranging from doing foolhardy things in battle right through to Naruto leaving a wet towel on the bed. But this time Sasuke's rant about Yukio had seemed different. There was a venom in Sasuke's dark eyes that wasn't there when he was just simply angry. Sasuke _really_ despised Yukio and Naruto believed what Sasuke had told him about Yukio implicitly. And why not, Sasuke had no reason to lie about this. Even if he simply hated the guy and didn't want him around the village he'd just say so. Sasuke tended not to lie about stuff like this preferring instead of having the impact of just simply telling how it was. So Naruto had relayed Sasuke's misgivings about Yukio's intentions adding his own two cents in as well. He believed Sasuke and he made sure Tsunade understood that it wasn't just because the two of them were friends. He'd then left it up to Tsunade after she had insisted that she would take it up with Yukio herself.

But that had been hours ago and he'd not seen Sasuke since.

Sasuke might walk around the town like he had a right to be there most of the time, but Naruto knew it was basically just for show. Sasuke still didn't feel entirely comfortable here, but he'd be damned if anyone else knew that. So although he strutted around the village like he could go anywhere he wanted, Sasuke had very few places where he actually felt at ease. And since their usual favourite training ground was actually being used by someone else for a change, even at this time of night, Naruto figured Sasuke must be at the library especially once he noticed that Sasuke's stack of books was missing.

So after a little while debating the wisdom of confronting Sasuke before he'd had a chance to properly cool off, Naruto set off toward the library at a brisk pace.

* * *

When Naruto got to the library, he was about to climb the stairs when he noticed a boy sitting on the steps with his head resting on his upraised knees. His shoulders were shaking and Naruto could hear the quiet sobs as the boy cried.

Naruto crouched down in front of him and ruffled his hair.

"Are you okay?"

The boy raised his head and looked at Naruto, his eyes red and running. He sniffed greatly and wiped his sleeve across his nose. Those red eyes widened a little though when they focussed on Naruto's face.

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Yeah, have we met?"

"Uh, n-no. But _everyone_ knows who you are. You're the hero of the village!"

If the boy was okay enough to point out Naruto's own prestige to him he figured whatever was wrong with the boy couldn't be _that_ bad.

"That's right. So what's your name?"

"K-Kyo," the boy said sniffing again. "Hey, you're Sasuke-sama's friend aren't you?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to look surprised. Not that the boy knew he and Sasuke were friends, but from the respectful title he'd used.

"Um, you know Sasuke?"

"We're friends too. Well, we were. Usually after he gets his books he'll come watch all the neat stuff I've learnt in training. But today he went in and didn't come out for ages. It was getting late and my mum was gonna worry if I waited too much longer so I went in to ask Sasuke how long he was gonna be and he told me to go away or he'd hurt me. He told me to stop annoying him!"

Well that certainly sounded like Sasuke all right. He might love him, but it was easy to think Sasuke would tell this boy to go away. Sasuke wasn't the most gracious person after all.

"He was such a jerk!" Kyo went on, "I mean it's not like he looks happy most of the time. But he acted like he didn't even know me at all!"

So apparently Kyo knew Sasuke well enough to have picked up a little off his mannerisms. Weird. Sasuke might well tell off some random kid, but Naruto got the troubling impression there was something else going on here.

"How long have you been meeting Sasuke at the library?"

"Since Yule. Well sort of. That was when he helped me with some bullies."

Naruto didn't know how to respond to that. Sasuke had never told him about helping a kid who was being bullied. It didn't surprise him much that Sasuke hadn't shared, it was the fact that Sasuke had felt compelled to help the boy in the first place that was really surprising him. So if Sasuke had first helped this boy and then been meeting with him for months afterwards it meant that the boy couldn't be too much of an irritation. Naruto still couldn't understand why Sasuke had helped the boy, Sasuke being who he was, but he doubted that after months Sasuke might turn around and tell the kid off now even after the day he'd had.

"What was he doing in there?"

"Nothing much, just reading. Normally he doesn't stay long. He reads a little sometimes, but usually he just picks up more books and comes out again. That's why I went looking for him."

Well at least now Naruto understood why Sasuke would be gone for hours whenever he went for a trip to the library.

"C'mon, let's go talk to him," Naruto said decisively. "I'm sure he didn't mean what he said. Um…probably," he had to add for honesty's sake. "He's not really angry with you anyway, he's just taking it out on you. We'll just go and smack some sense into him."

Kyo led him into the library and up toward the back study tables where sure enough he could see Sasuke with his head bent over a book, paying no attention to the world around him.

He went to walk over but noticed after a few steps that he was alone. He looked back to see Kyo standing by a bookcase with a worried expression, chewing on his lip.

"C'mon, Sasuke wont hurt you."

"He said he would," Kyo explained.

Okay, so that was weird. Not that Sasuke wouldn't resort to violence to solve a problem, but that he would threaten a child seemed really out of character. Sasuke might not be the most moral, nice and compassionate person in the world sometimes, but he wouldn't hurt a child just because the kid was annoying him.

"He won't," Naruto assured him.

Kyo nodded but Naruto noticed that he still stayed a few paces back behind Naruto as the pair walked over to the oblivious Uchiha. Naruto stopped by the table and felt a concerned hand against his back and Kyo peeked around him trying to see what was going on while at the same time trying not to be seen by Sasuke.

"Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked up at him, annoyed at being interrupted again, a usual reaction. But as soon as Naruto's eyes locked onto those dark eyes he knew. They were the same dark penetrating eyes that Naruto was used to, the ones he'd looked into a thousand times before. But there was something missing behind those eyes and that something was Sasuke.

* * *

_Notes: Well so Sasuke looks like he's in some pretty deep shit. Doesn't Yukio just make your skin crawl? _

_ But ah, Kyo is just so cute. Oh my, lookit me I made two OCs *looks sheepish* one an adorable little hero worshipping young teen, the other a sick sadistic bastard. Hmmm, well at least it balances out somewhat. _

_ Anyway, Sasuke is in danger, let's hope Naruto and Kyo can find him and rescue him in time._

_ Oh yeah, see I promised I would do another scene with Sasuke tied to a tree as well. There's a story behind that but there are a few reoccurring themes that I've been somewhat dared into trying to fit into any multi-chaptered lengthy fic I write. One was the reoccurring shower scene, the other was having Sasuke tied to something. Though admittedly this time having Sasuke tied to something probably isn't the kinky scene that was expected but I blame Yukio for that lol._

**Unsigned Reviews**

_**JJ – **I know I'm evil sometimes with the cliffhangers. But I hope it was worth the wait :)_

_**Missbip0lar – **okay so not technically unsigned since I know you so sorry I didn't just PM you. But anyway, glad you are enjoying so far :) And well if you like the Sasuke dark angst this and the next couple of chapters should please you even more. Enjoy!_


	5. Naruto and Kyo to the Rescue!

**Chasing Away the Past**

**Chapter 5**

**Naruto and Kyo to the Rescue**

This was not Sasuke; he knew it after mere seconds. His first reaction was to call this impostor out on it, demand to know what was happening and where the real Sasuke was. But if this wasn't Sasuke it was more than likely a clone of someone else which could be released before Naruto got any answers and all he would succeed in doing would be alerting whoever was behind Sasuke's disappearance that he knew it was a fake. So what, play along? Seemed like the best option for now even if every fibre in his being was telling him to grab this clone by the throat and demand answers.

Of course he might be wrong. He wasn't the best at picking up these sorts of things at the best of times. But he _did_ know Sasuke, and he was almost positive this wasn't his Sasuke. But there was one good way to know for sure.

"What are you still doing here?" Naruto asked the clone in what he hoped was a casual tone. "Ya know you were supposed to pick Sakura up for a date tonight."

Sasuke didn't look impressed. "I've changed my mind. I'm not going."

Naruto nodded and forced a smile. It was like he was fighting a battle against his own body. He knew he had to play it cool, he knew he had to think things through, but he also knew now that Sasuke was in danger and whoever had made this clone was responsible. He wanted to do some damage. Luckily for him he could still feel the pressure of Kyo's small hand against his back reminding him to use his brain.

"Okay I'll let her know. See ya later Sasuke!"

Naruto turned and pulled a surprised Kyo with him by his arm as he left the study area. They managed to get outside before Kyo managed to jerk his arm free and stop, staring at Naruto like he'd gone insane.

"What happened? I thought you were gonna let him have it!"

Naruto stopped too and looked around him. The street was pretty empty by now and there was no one around to overhear them so Naruto decided he might as well share. Kyo might only be around thirteen or fourteen but he wasn't a child and there was no use lying to him.

"That wasn't Sasuke," Naruto admitted to him.

Kyo was understandably confused by this. "What do you mean, 'that wasn't Sasuke'? It sure looked like him."

"It was someone else's clone," Naruto explained further.

"I don't get it. So it wasn't Sasuke being mean to me?"

"I doubt it. And _I_ don't get it either."

Which was true. Sure not a lot of people really liked Sasuke much these days, but he'd been in the village for months. It seemed weird that someone would wait until now to try something with him. And besides, even without his chakra, Sasuke wasn't someone easily messed with. Of course it may not be a villager but someone who only just got into town. Someone perhaps who had been called into see Tsunade to refute accusations levelled against him by Sasuke…

"That bastard!" Naruto exclaimed.

"What?"

"I think someone has taken Sasuke in revenge for something." Naruto spent a few moments looking around the rooftops, anywhere that Sasuke's Anbu escort might be hiding and watching from.

"So we're gonna rescue him right?" Kyo asked hopefully.

"I am," Naruto replied signalling to the Anbu. "_You're_ going to go home."

"No way!" Kyo argued and then gasped as a black-cloaked ninja landed on the ground beside Naruto. The white mask of an owl seemed very bright against the darkness and Kyo took a few steps backwards before he could stop himself.

"Are you taking over now?" The Anbu asked Naruto.

"Where are the rest?" Naruto asked sharply. "Usually there's three of you."

"We are stretched thin at the moment. This week we were told that there would only be one or two of us watching the Uchiha. Tonight I am on my own."

"Fucking brilliant!"

"Is something wrong?"

"You bet there is. Sasuke is missing."

"I checked on him only five minutes ago, he has not moved," the Anbu replied reproachfully.

"It's a clone."

The Anbu didn't seem to know how to reply to that.

"I don't think it was a clone before he went in," Kyo volunteered. "I talked to him, he seemed normal. It wasn't until I went in to see him that he was like a different person."

"So he was taken from the library," Naruto concluded. "Did you see anyone following him today? Say someone with dark brown hair and a black vest about my build and height?"

The Anbu shook his head.

"I did," Kyo admitted. Immediately he was treated to an intense double stare from both ninja and he had to swallow thickly before he continued. "I was hiding, ready to ambush Sasuke as a sort of joke and I saw the guy watching Sasuke from the library steps. But he'd gone inside before we'd finished talking. I only really noticed him because I saw him at the library last week talking to the staff. I was there cause I thought Sasuke might show up that day. He didn't get a lot of books last time. The staff here know me pretty well and told me they hadn't seen Sasuke yet but that his books weren't due back yet and I should try again today. That guy gave me such an odd look when he heard Sasuke's name and he was still talking to the staff when I left. I didn't think anything of it till just now. I just thought the guy was being a bit weird."

Well that explained a lot. The library was the place Sasuke spent most of his time when he wasn't at home so it wouldn't be hard to set up a trap for him here, knowing what day he was due back. But if Kyo was right, and even if Yukio knew Sasuke would be here today at some point, how the hell had he managed to set up a trap in time?

After Sasuke had left him, Naruto had waited until the Hokage's first meeting with Yukio was over and he was allowed to see her. Kakashi had turned up during that meeting and then when the pair of them had left, she had apparently summoned Yukio back for a talk about the accusations. Naruto and Kakashi had hung around to see what the outcome was but Tsunade had told them that Yukio had pled his innocence and could offer proof given time. It wasn't like she could take him into custody; they had no real evidence that Yukio was doing anything nefarious. So after Yukio's second talk with the Hokage that day he would have had to go practically straight to the library to meet up with Sasuke before he left to hang out with Kyo. The fact that he had beaten Sasuke there made Naruto believe that Sasuke had taken his time getting there, but it bugged him how quickly it had all gone down. Something like this would take planning.

And then a colder thought occurred to him. And that was that Yukio had this already planned since last week but was only spurred into action because today was the day Sasuke was due back to the library and the fact that today was also the day when Sasuke had laid accusations against him via Naruto that he wasn't being honest with the village. He must have been planning to abduct Sasuke anyway, that seemed certain given that there didn't seem enough time to set up a trap like this on a moment's notice. Yukio was an information gatherer and merchant by trade and trusted by almost everyone in town and it was no secret that Sasuke was being watched or that he came to the library often. He could have gotten most of this information from the library staff. Every detail from how often the Anbu checked on him to which part of the library he borrowed from, everything. And it must have been a good trap because Sasuke, though not so paranoid as he used to be, was not easily fooled or beaten. He would have needed to have a plan in place to incapacitate Sasuke quickly and remove him without the Anbu seeing. That would take a lot longer than one day to plan.

But before Sasuke had accused him, what other reason could Yukio have to take him? Sure, they'd known each other before now and there didn't seem to be any love lost there. Did Yukio want to simply kill him? That would be stupid, especially now when he had such a good motive in the eyes of the Hokage. He might have taken Sasuke to try to get Sasuke to take back what he'd said to Naruto and Kakashi, but what was his reason a week ago?

The way Sasuke had looked at Yukio earlier didn't sit well with him either. Sasuke didn't like a lot of people, but he rarely openly despised them so much. And the way Yukio had talked to him had seemed oddly affectionate considering how cool Sasuke was towards him…

"Maybe _you_ should be watching him," The Anbu told Kyo sarcastically.

"Maybe I should!" Kyo shot back. "At least I wouldn't lose him."

"Idiot, you were sitting outside the entrance, same as me."

"I want you to continue watching the clone," Naruto told the Anbu, interrupting the argument. "In case he does something or goes somewhere, it might be important."

Naruto couldn't see his face but he got the impression that the ninja wasn't happy about this order. But while Naruto was Sasuke's warden, the Anbu had to take certain orders from him. And since the Hokage wasn't around to refute these orders he had little choice but to comply.

"Yes, I will continue to watch. There is another way out of the library but it usually sealed. The assailant must have used this way though only a shinobi would be able to open it. Will you search for Sasuke?"

Naruto nodded just as Kyo exclaimed, "Me too!"

"No, you need to go home. This could be dangerous."

"I am a genin now, you know. I could help you!"

"I thought you said your mother would worry."

"But this is important! You can't stop me from coming with you."

Actually there were about a million ways Naruto could prevent Kyo from coming with him, but he hesitated because Kyo seemed so adamant about helping Sasuke out that Naruto was finding it difficult to say no. The fact that Kyo wanted so badly to save his missing friend made him feel warm, despite his gut knotting worry about said missing friend. That Sasuke had made such a positive impact on a young villager like this gave Naruto such a proud feeling it made his want to find Sasuke, find him safe, all the more dire. Besides, he was up against Yukio not some great and powerful shinobi. Even if he had to end up protecting Kyo and Sasuke both he figured he wouldn't have much of a problem.

"Are you any good at tracking?" Naruto asked relenting.

Kyo grinned widely. "Are you kidding me? Kiba-sensei says I'm a natural!"

* * *

Yukio ran his hands down Sasuke's sides to grip his hips. Those fingers dug in so much that Sasuke could feel blunt fingernails cut his skin. The touch was so intense he had to bite his lip hard to keep from crying out. Gradually he bit down harder as though he could block out Yukio's touch by causing himself even more sensation than Yukio's hands were capable of. One of Yukio's hands left his hip and slid its way over his hip behind him, fingers trailing lightly to finger the crease of his ass.

"Stop biting yourself pet," Yukio told him. "I want to hear you."

"Fuck you," Sasuke offered viciously.

"Better, but not quite what I had in mind. No, don't, I told you to stop biting."

Sasuke didn't listen because at that moment, Yukio's fingers slipped lower and he felt them prod the sensitive ring of muscles as Yukio leant forward and latched his lips onto the crook of Sasuke's neck and then he almost bit through his lip entirely. He felt such a surge of sensation right then it was almost like diving into a frozen lake. His head was in such a state though that at first he barely registered Yukio let him go and step back with an, 'ouch'.

Sasuke blinked a few times, his senses going crazy from the sudden lack of sensation and his mind reeling. He tried to clear his head to understand why Yukio had stopped and hating the fact that he almost wished he could just be touched again. Yukio was right, the jutsu was powerful. However as much as it made him crave touch, the working part of his mind still wanted Yukio dead with every fibre of his being.

Yukio meanwhile was rubbing at his lip. "What was that? Static?"

Static? Had Yukio gotten a little shock? Sasuke wanted to believe that maybe his body had reacted, had used chakra on instinct to get Yukio to stop, to hurt him, anything, but it seemed like a long shot. Of course, it didn't mean he couldn't try that tactic. It took a tremendous amount of effort to mould chakra into an element but Sasuke had used to do it as easily as he breathed. He wondered what would happen if he actually tried to do it now after all his stolen moments of practising over the last few months. True, he'd never achieved the control really needed to hurt someone, but it had steadily shown improvement. If his body was indeed reacting to the danger, he could perhaps use that to his advantage.

Either way, Yukio seemed to think it was just weird chance and stepped back in. Sasuke managed to turn his head just before Yukio could capture his lips. A plan was forming in his hazy mind but it was difficult to grasp, to hold on to what he felt he now needed to do.

_Static, remember? You might have caused that. Your body might be reacting to the threat. Focus on the power like you used to. _Make_ it work for you. Free yourself._

"Now, now. You never liked kissing much but I thought I made it clear. If I don't get what I want from you I will go elsewhere."

Sasuke clenched his jaw and turned his head back.

_That's right, make it look forced, don't let him know. Draw him in, keep him close. Focus._

"That's better."

He felt Yukio's lips on his, moving roughly, dry and demanding and though his first reaction was to just clench his jaw and take it, his mouth fell open as two fingers pushed into him roughly without warning and his skin burned with the mistreatment. Yukio took the moment to thrust his tongue inside but Sasuke stopped himself from biting. He waited until Yukio's tongue withdrew then he sucked Yukio's bottom lip into his mouth. With great effort on his wrists, bought his legs to wrap up around Yukio's waist.

Yukio must have thought he'd died and gone to heaven. He moaned at the pressure on his groin, and the feeling of Sasuke sucking on his lip.

_Bring him close, have as much of him touching you as possible_. _Keep him close. _

And that was the moment when Sasuke really _tried._

He felt the hairs on his arms stand up as real power flowed through his limbs for the first time in what felt like years. He felt the chakra leak from his body and willed it to take shape, willed it to become his weapon and then he willed it to move.

Yukio's moan turned into a scream as the chakra hit him and even more when Sasuke bit down on his lip, trapping his face in place and put all his strength into keeping his legs tightly around Yukio. Yukio shuddered and screamed as the lightening raged through his body and blood from his lip welled up, dripped down his chin and hit Sasuke's chest in warm wet drops. The blood flowed into Sasuke's mouth too but Sasuke didn't care, because the screams made the taste sweeter.

A few more moments and Yukio would drop, just a little more chakra…

What little reserves he'd been able to summon though were flagging quickly. It was a great achievement to get this much out of his body but it was sloppy and a difficult task for him now. Betrayed by his own mutilated chakra network Sasuke groaned in frustration. Before the power left him entirely Yukio managed to break Sasuke's hold around him and tear his face free losing a part of his lip in the process.

Sasuke spat the blood and flesh out, his head barely keeping up from exhaustion and glared at Yukio as he stumbled backwards. Sasuke felt close to passing out, it had been too much before he was ready. Now his whole body sagged and he doubted that even if Yukio untied him now whether he'd even be able to raise his hand long enough to hit him let alone kill him. He'd tried and failed and now he felt spent and sick with frustration.

Yukio straightened up and matched Sasuke's glare. He was pissed and hurt and looked ready to kill Sasuke himself.

"How the fuck…?"

"Told you…it wouldn't…be that easy…" Sasuke reminded him, trying desperately to hide the fact that he couldn't do that again. Hoping that Yukio was too scared to touch him again even as his very nerves were screaming out for the touch. "What makes you think I would let you touch me again? It's not an act this time Yukio! Keeping me tied up isn't a game this time and you know it! I will tear the skin from your body bit by bit until you die in screaming agony. I only let you near me before to keep the peace, to not let you ruin my chances to become stronger by refusing to help Orochimaru if I wouldn't comply. I don't need it any more and I would rather die trying to kill you than let you even breathe on me again. If you come near me again or threaten to take Kyo, I _will _end you!"

"You're going to regret that," Yukio spat with difficulty because of his lip. "I bet that took all you had, you look like it did. Probably good news for you because I'm going to fuck you so hard you'll bleed a lot more than you made me bleed. And then, just to pay you back I think I might go find your replacement too."

Yukio took a few steps back toward him undoing his pants.

Sasuke was breathing hard and trying to stay focussed, keep the jutsu from affecting his mind once more. He might not be able to summon his chakra again but so long as his legs were free and his teeth were at his disposal he would make Yukio pay for every moment he was near him.

But then time seemed to slow a little for Sasuke. His head still felt hazy, his responses a little slow but it seemed as though this time when he focussed on Yukio, who was at one moment walking toward him with determination and then the next suddenly flying backwards, it was as though Sasuke had blinked very slowly and missed a few seconds of time. Sasuke blinked again, trying to clear his vision to see what had happened. A flash of blond and orange and there was Naruto standing over the fallen Yukio who was clutching at his shoulder on the ground, an agonised cry of pain issuing from him. Naruto wasn't watching Yukio anymore though, his eyes were focussed on Sasuke and he looked unbelievingly scared. Then his eyebrows drew together and his eyes flashed a deep crimson red and his gaze snapped down to Yukio.

That was when Naruto dropped down over Yukio and Sasuke heard the cries of pain and of flesh hitting flesh repeatedly as Naruto vented his fear and anger on the man who had caused it.

Sasuke closed his eyes.

Relief flooded through Sasuke in unexpected waves. He hadn't wanted to be rescued because he'd felt weak at the idea that he'd needed it. But right now he was really appreciating the need to be rescued sometimes.

"Naruto…"

Smack. Smack.

"Naruto!" Sasuke called a shade more loudly.

The sound stopped and then he heard soft footsteps, leaves being crushed underfoot as Naruto came towards him. Then he felt a body brush up against him as Naruto reached up and cut his hands free. Unfortunately Sasuke's legs didn't catch him but Naruto did, easing him to a sitting position on the ground one arm going around him, the other touching the side of Sasuke's face.

He didn't say anything, which was good right now. Sasuke opened his eyes to stare into red slit ones, and then without proper thought kissed him. His tongue slid across sharp teeth before he realised what he was doing. The effects of the jutsu were still on him and even though he felt this was pretty much the worst time ever to start making out with his rescuer, he couldn't help it. Despite how revolted his mind had been a few minutes ago, it was Naruto touching him now, Naruto's lips, his arms around him and he was safe. Relief and unnaturally electrified hormones made him want to devour the man holding onto him and he didn't stop until Naruto drew away with a beyond concerned look.

"Ummm…"

But whatever Naruto was going to say was cut off by a low whistle. They both looked around to see Kyo give Yukio's beaten and groaning body a casual kick.

"I think you broke him, Naruto."

"Kyo?" Sasuke questioned quietly to Naruto.

"He ah, wanted to help. I didn't think…"

"Where are my clothes?"

"I didn't see any." Naruto turned to Kyo. "Kyo, stop kicking him."

"Why?" Kyo asked giving him another kick. "He deserves worse. Sasuke are you okay?"

"Kyo, run back to town and get Sasuke some clothes."

Kyo nodded. "Sure, my brother's clothes should fit."

They watched Kyo run off and Naruto turned back to Sasuke with a wince. "I told him to stay back. I don't think he saw what Yukio was going to…I mean he just knows that Yukio captured you, that's all."

"Obviously, to judge by his reaction."

Sasuke felt a lot better about that. It was bad enough for Naruto to see him like this, but he wasn't exactly ready for Kyo to understand some of the world's evils this up close and personal. He knew what that could do to a kid.

Sasuke struggled to sit up on his own, his eyes darting towards Yukio's prone form. He hadn't moved much but he wasn't unconscious. Sasuke could hear him softly and wetly groaning in the aftermath of Naruto's beating.

Naruto's eyes had faded back to blue and he looked pale and sick. "Sasuke, _are _you okay?"

Sasuke struggled to his feet under Naruto's watchful gaze.

"I will be in a moment." He held out his hand. "I need a knife."

He expected Naruto to refuse, to tell him not to do it and for a moment that's pretty much what Naruto's expression was telling him. But without a word he reached into his pouch and took out a kunai, handing it to Sasuke.

"Kyo will be back soon," he warned instead in a soft voice.

Sasuke took a deep steadying breath. "Pity. I had quite a few years of payback to get through."

He walked unsteadily over to Yukio's prone form and then spent a few moments looking down into wide scared and pained brown eyes. He wondered if his eyes had looked like that after so many of Yukio's ministrations. He doubted it. But he liked seeing that look on Yukio's face now. Yukio knew what was about to happen to him, he had known Sasuke pretty well in the past after all and he knew what he was capable of. Yukio _knew_ what Sasuke was going to do to him and he _knew_ it was going to be painful.

"Naruto?" Sasuke called without looking around.

"Yeah?"

Naruto's voice still sounded shaky, a little too soft and not at all as confident as he normally did.

"Go and wait for Kyo."

"No."

Sasuke tried not to get annoyed by the refusal. "I don't want you to see this."

"I don't want to see it either," Naruto admitted. "But I won't leave you alone here."

There was no way he wanted Naruto around when he took Yukio apart but he could read into the sentiment when he heard it. He felt Naruto wasn't getting it though.

"I don't want you to see _me_ doing this," Sasuke clarified.

Naruto didn't respond for a good long time. Sasuke knew he'd understood this time what he'd meant but he was still unprepared for Naruto's answer when it came.

"I know this is the only way for you to finish it, to give you some sort of peace. I'm not going to think any differently of you for it. And besides, if you don't kill him… _I_ probably will."

Perhaps it wasn't just Kyo he'd wanted to protect from the evils of the world after all. But unlike Kyo, Naruto didn't seem to need as much protecting from it as Sasuke had thought.

Sasuke knelt down in the grass and clutched the kunai tightly in his hand.

"I really hope you mean that."

TBC

* * *

_Notes: Ding dong, the psychos gone! Yay! Woah went pretty dark there though huh, my bad. I added a lot more to the chapter than I had originally intended and it did get a little darker because of it if I'm honest. But I really couldn't stomach the thought of keeping Yukio alive at all. Of course I probably didn't have to make his death so deliberate and am still uneasy at the thought that I made Naruto a little murderous too which is probably completely out of character for him, but I settled it in my own mind thinking that even the most compassionate, well rounded person in the world would probably want to murder Yukio if he touched one of their loved ones. And I suppose I did make Naruto a tad overprotective in 'I Need' so I suppose I can get away with it here._

_ On a happier note, Kyo is safe and none the wiser about what almost really happened to Sasuke. I love that so many of you got so protective about Kyo too because he's an OC and all. He's just so adorable isn't he? Of course I couldn't let anything bad happen to him. In the end I couldn't even have him know what bad things almost happened to Sasuke either. I decided not to give Kyo issues this early in the game._

_ Okay and I know I promised this was the second last chapter too. Well… it isn't. When I added more to the chapter I went a little overboard and when it started to get up around 7k+ I decided to cut it down and make chapter 5 into chapter 5 and 6 instead. Which of course now means there will be a chapter 7 as well. Yeah, most of you are probably used to me doing that now. Dash tells us there will only be three more chapters so we can safely assume there will be four or five or perhaps even twenty. *looks sheepish* oh well, I doubt there will be many complaints. Chapter 6 will be a bit short though but happily is almost done so the wait should be minimal. The next chapter will begin almost exactly where the last chapter left off._

_ Big, huge, massive thanks to everyone that sent me their happy thoughts, please feel my deepest love for you all :)_

_Dash._

Unsigned Reviews –

_**Guest – **well I didn't let him get Sasuke in the end and Sasuke is safe though perhaps plenty disturbed by the whole thing. So I hope nothing is spoiled for you._

_**IluvlY17 – **__Yeah, I'm dark but perhaps not quite _that_ dark lol. Ah you know me, I will threaten the horrible a lot but never quite get there in the end. _

_Thanks and big hugs, I really appreciate your support. Not sure it will take me that long to get back into the swing of things but already am starting to feel better from everyone's care shown to me. *smiles* _


	6. Dealing

**Chasing Away the Past**

**Chapter 6**

**Dealing**

Sasuke was done with Yukio before Kyo returned but by then he had a lot more blood on him. Naruto figured he'd just tell Tsunade tomorrow about Yukio attacking Sasuke. He planned to leave a few things out of his story though for Sasuke's sake.

"I think your brother's clothes will be ruined," Sasuke told Kyo as he struggled into loose pants. He actually seemed to have gained a little strength back and could stand without leaning badly. Thankfully he seemed fit enough to walk.

Naruto had been insistent Sasuke go to the hospital or at least to see Sakura but Sasuke had refused point blank saying he just needed a shower, nothing more. He told Naruto about the jutsu but apparently the effects were already beginning to fade.

"Oh don't worry," Kyo told him trying to sound cheerful. He hadn't seen everything but he must have guessed that Yukio had been dispensed of. It had probably been scary enough finding his own personal hero naked and beaten not to mention probably seeing the tail end of Naruto beating the crap out of the villain. He was holding up surprisingly well. "Riku'll never notice."

The three of them began walking back to town. Luckily it was so late no one was really around to notice Sasuke all bloody. Naruto and Sasuke left Kyo to run home and made it back to the apartment without incident except for meeting with Sasuke's Anbu escort along the way. Naruto couldn't help it, he was pissed at the guy for letting Sasuke get taken but managed to dismiss the guard without saying more than necessary.

When they got inside, Sasuke left immediately to have a shower and Naruto sat on the bed in the bedroom and fretted. And fretted and kept fretting.

_How long did it take to have a fucking shower?_

But then with that thought Naruto's eyes flew open wide and he rushed to the bathroom and threw open the door. Startled, Sasuke turned and looked at him from where he was standing underneath the showerhead apparently not doing anything dangerous or self-harming and Naruto forced himself to take a deep breath.

"Where's the fire?" Sasuke asked mildly.

"Uh, sorry. You were just taking a while and I got worried and…"

"I doubt I'm going to be adducted twice in one night, dobe. I'll try to keep your damsel saving down to once a month at least."

"That's not, uh… never mind."

It took Sasuke a few moments but eventually his eyes narrowed. "If Yukio had the power to make me want to do that to myself it would have happened a long time ago. The only person Yukio made me want to hurt was him."

Naruto didn't like the sound of that but nodded anyway. He supposed he hadn't really put two and two together until now. Yukio had done this before. The reason behind the kidnapping in the first place was so Yukio could get Sasuke alone again, the fact that Sasuke had threatened his position had only been a secondary mission after all. Well now he knew why Yukio had been planning this for a lot longer than a day. He felt like he should be angry and he had been at the time when he'd seen and heard Yukio in the forest. He knew he would have killed him if he hadn't heard Sasuke call out to him. It made him a little uneasy to think that he didn't care if he had either. But despite earlier anger, he just couldn't get angry right now. Not even in the full light of the bathroom where he could see Yukio's fingernail marks on Sasuke's hips, see the bruises, the way he'd almost chewed through his own lip. He only felt completely and utterly heartbroken for Sasuke to see what had happened to him and know it had happened before only worse because back then Sasuke hadn't been in control of his life enough to really fight back like he had tonight. Who knew what had been done to him. It made Naruto feel sick.

He also noticed just how thorough Sasuke was being in the shower as well. He scrubbed himself again and again till his skin was ruddy from the attention while still making it seem like it was the most natural thing in the world. There was no desperation about it, no hurry. It made Naruto think he'd done this a lot in the past and it was almost like he'd scrubbed away the memory of near violation to the point of monotony. He was used to this, very used to it.

He noticed Naruto watching and shut off the shower stepping out and grabbing a towel. "Anything for dinner?"

For a moment Naruto thought he had misheard. "You're hungry?"

"A little. I haven't eaten anything today."

"Okay, I can get you something I guess."

"Thanks, but I'd rather forgo the instant ramen. I'll get something myself."

Sasuke left the bathroom leaving a dumbfounded Naruto to follow after him. He watched Sasuke dress and head to the kitchen really unsure about what to do. He'd expected…well he didn't know what he'd expected. He couldn't imagine Sasuke as a basket case ever but he'd expected him to at least get angry or be depressed or _something_. But he was just talking and acting like it was any other night and he hadn't just been attacked by a psychopathic rapist.

"Uh Sasuke, are you okay?"

"Fine," Sasuke responded looking in the fridge.

"Do you want to talk or something?"

"No. There's nothing to talk about. What happened to the chicken tuna?"

"I ate it. Look Sasuke-"

Sasuke shut the fridge and left the kitchen. "I'm going out to get something to eat," Sasuke interrupted. "Do you want anything?"

It was about at this point that Naruto kind of snapped.

"Stop acting so fucking tough and cool all the time!" Naruto exclaimed.

He had thought he'd regret it the moment he'd said it, but he didn't. Sasuke had just been through a very bad thing, almost made nightmarish if that sick bastard had had his way. But stubbornly acting like it was no big deal was not healthy. Nobody in their right mind could shrug something off like this as though it was just a fact of life. It wasn't, or rather it shouldn't be, and Sasuke had to admit how seriously this could have gone wrong and deal with what he was meant to be feeling instead of pushing it down deep within himself and letting it fester like it usually did.

"I'm not," Sasuke told him calmly. "Nothing actually happened. He didn't violate me, he barely touched me really. He's dead, let it go."

"No! And if you think for one moment that is how you should deal with this you're an idiot!"

Alright, so maybe that was one poke too much. Sasuke's face darkened a little at that comment. "Got great experience in this area do you?"

So he was going to play the 'you're so naive' card was he? He was going to use the old argument that Naruto didn't understand because he hadn't been through the same thing. Which happened to be true, but that didn't mean he couldn't feel pain for Sasuke. Thinking about what had almost happened, even what did apparently happen made him sick to the near point of vomiting. Well at least that gave him an idea.

"What makes you think I don't?" Naruto replied steadily.

At first Sasuke didn't seem to realise what he'd said and Naruto wondered for a moment whether Sasuke could tell he was lying. Sasuke could always tell he was lying, why not now? But he had surprise going for him. Plus the fact that he hadn't technically lied, he'd just asked a question, not stated it as fact.

Sasuke's face paled dramatically. "What?" he asked softly.

"You assume a lot about my life for someone who wasn't a part of it for a good long time," Naruto told him.

Sasuke was not generally one for showing his bare emotions on his face and Naruto was starting to feel bad for the reaction he was getting now. Sasuke's eyes were a little wide, his hands at his sides seemed a little unsteady and he looked about as ready to vomit as Naruto had felt not two minutes earlier.

"No," Sasuke told him as though his denial could make it all not true. It sounded a little desperate.

Naruto crossed over to him and put a reassuring hand to the side of his face.

"Makes you feel sick, doesn't it? It makes you hurt to think someone you care about could have been treated like that."

Even in the state he was in Sasuke was still quick on the uptake. He closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath.

"That didn't happen to you, did it?"

"No. But you had to know how I feel. I understand, Sasuke. Having no experience doesn't stop me feeling pain for _you_."

Sasuke's eyes flew open and he pushed Naruto away roughly. "You asshole! It's not the same!"

"I know it isn't," Naruto countered. "But you keep insisting that it isn't an issue, but the very thought that I went through the exact same thing as you hurt you didn't it? You can hurt for me, but not for yourself? That's fucked up Sasuke, even for you. What you went through was obviously bad otherwise you wouldn't have had that reaction. If you don't admit it and deal with it, the nightmares, the bad experiences will just continue to eat you up inside. I don't want you to go through that anymore! Just think it through, let what happen sink in so you can start to deal with it. It's not going to go away just because you tore the life out of the person who did it to you."

"Shut up!" Sasuke demanded, turning his back and heading for the door.

"Sasuke, damn it-" Naruto grabbed his arm. Probably a bad move.

Sasuke turned on him and punched him square in the jaw. Whatever reaction he'd expected, it hadn't been that. The unexpected attack threw him off balance and he landed on his ass painfully.

Sasuke glared down at him for a moment before turning and making to leave once more. He got as far as putting his hand on the door before he stopped. He stood there for a few minutes watching the wood in front of his eyes tensely.

Naruto had expected him to leave anyway and honestly wouldn't blame him if he did considering how harsh he'd been but Sasuke surprised him by taking his hand off the door and coming back over to him and crouching down. He didn't look at Naruto and kept his eyes on the floor directly in front of him. His long dark fringe obscuring most of his face. He didn't speak.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, I really am," Naruto began. "I didn't mean to push so hard."

"Yes you did," Sasuke replied, his tone quiet but his words still a little sharp. "You're always pushing me. But I'm not this well rounded person you think I can be."

"I don't want you to change Sasuke, I just don't want you to have any more regrets. You can't keep throwing this thing back at me saying that I don't understand. I know I don't, there's no way I could. But I understand you as much as I can without actually being you, just like you understand me. You aren't alone anymore, you don't need to deal with things on your own. I need you to know that."

Sasuke reached up and slowly and gently touched the side of Naruto's face where he'd hit him. Already the skin there felt hot and tight.

"Does it hurt?"

"Not much."

"Liar."

Naruto grabbed his wrist and pulled Sasuke forward and onto his knees, Naruto's arms wrapping around him. Sasuke only tensed for a moment before allowing himself to be hugged, wrapping his own arms around Naruto's middle and burying his face into the side of his neck.

They stayed like that for what felt like a long time, neither speaking or moving. And Naruto decided they'd stay like that for a while longer when he felt a warm wet trail snake down over his shoulder.

* * *

They managed to sleep through the entire next day, which meant that Naruto's eyes didn't open again till just after the sun had begun to set. They had fallen asleep face-to-face, foreheads resting against one another and apparently neither of them had moved through the night. Naruto was pretty surprised. He was a bit of a restless sleeper and so was Sasuke. But after last night the pair of them must have been so emotionally drained that they'd slept perfectly still all day. This also meant that Sasuke probably hadn't had any dreams.

They'd spent the rest of the night previous talking. Or rather Sasuke had. He'd told him about Yukio and others like him and though it was painful to hear, Naruto was glad he was finally talking about it, admitting that things about his past bothered him but he actually seemed a lot calmer afterwards for the effort.

The orange/red light from the sunset bathed the room in a soft warm tone. Sasuke was facing toward him, away from the window so that only half his face was touched by the soothing light. Half of his fringe was hiding part of his face though so Naruto reached up and smoothed it aside. Sasuke's eyes opened at the touch and he watched Naruto without expression for a few silent moments. The light that reached his right eye lit up the lighter colours in his otherwise dark eye making it appear as though his eyes were two different colours. Naruto hadn't noticed it before but Sasuke's eyes weren't as black as they seemed. Even when he wasn't using his Sharingan they had a very dull reddish hint to their incredibly dark brown depths.

"Beautiful," Naruto whispered before he could stop himself.

Sasuke smirked at him. "There's something wrong with your eyes if you're only just realising this now. What do you think, how would I look with a big scar down the side of my face?"

"Like Sasuke with a scar?" Naruto asked uncertainly. "What, are you gonna maim yourself now?"

"No, just wondering if it might make me look bad."

Sasuke didn't look serious so Naruto decided not to be worried. Sasuke actually seemed to be joking which was encouraging, considering.

Naruto let his finger trail down the side of Sasuke's face as though tracing this imaginary scar.

"No chance. Sorry."

Sasuke attempted to shrug. "Worth a shot."

He took the hand Naruto had used to touch his face and put it around himself, settling it low against his hip and resting his forehead against Naruto's again.

Naruto's hand twitched a little where it had been placed.

"Heya, Sasuke. How can you stand being touched at the moment? I mean if you're just doing this because-"

"You think I can't make the distinction between Yukio and you?"

"Of course I'm not like him! But doesn't it bring back bad memories?"

"You must know by now that I've been through a lot worse than this before. True what happened might have been bothering me more than I wanted to admit, but that doesn't mean that affects anything between us. Good memories replace the bad after a while and besides there is nothing we do together any more that reminds me what people like Yukio did. You could tie me up to a tree and take advantage of me and I wouldn't have issue with it because it's you, I trust you and I want you. You wouldn't even have to kidnap me," Sasuke finished with a smirk.

Naruto frowned. "That's not funny, why would I want to tie you up?"

"I've held you down before, did you hate it?"

"No," Naruto replied after a moment. "You weren't forcing me. If I told you to stop it or let me go you would."

"So would you."

"But I've only ever been with you. It's easier for me to trust someone else."

Sasuke sighed. "We're going in circles. Look, you said you understand me as well as anyone could. Do you think I would lie to you to make you feel better to my own disgust?"

Naruto thought about it. Sasuke wasn't exactly the same selfish person he was say a year ago but he didn't lie to him to make him feel better and he didn't care that giving his opinion made him seem conceited or started a fight. Why peruse a relationship with someone if being with that someone hurt you? Sasuke wouldn't do that. However…

"Is there some part of you that does certain things with me to make yourself feel better?"

"You mean do I make myself have sex with you to cover up the memories of people like Yukio?"

Naruto swallowed thickly. "Yeah."

"You're going to take this the wrong way, but yes, a part of me does. Or maybe 'did' is a better word. Can you imagine hating something up until the moment someone shows you it doesn't have to be bad? Look," Sasuke amended after seeing Naruto's confused and slightly alarmed expression, "I'll put it in terms you'll understand. Imagine that all you had to eat for your entire life was rancid meat and then all of a sudden you were given a bowl of ramen. Suddenly eating doesn't have to be a chore to stay alive and becomes something to look forward to for the first time ever. Do you want to focus on all those torturous meals or do you want to look forward to eating nothing but ramen in the future? Wouldn't you rather stuff your face with ramen than even remember what the bad meat tastes like?"

"I'm the ramen right?" Single-minded Naruto asked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "_You're_ a moron. Just tell me you get what I'm saying."

"Enjoyment can make one thing almost like two separate things and experiences. I get it, I do. I just don't know how you can separate it so easily. I'm pretty sure I couldn't."

"I doubt you would have even gotten yourself into the same situation when presented with the choice. But that's not the point. You don't need to make yourself feel the same way, so long as you believe that I can feel that way about it."

"Okay," Naruto said after a moment. "I believe you. But hey Sasuke, promise me one thing?"

"Sure."

"Can we go get some ramen later? You made me really hungry with your speech."

Sasuke gave him a bemused kind of smile. "Dobe."

TBC

* * *

_Notes: Poor Sasuke, he didn't get full on abused this time but memories are a hard thing to shake. Methinks Naruto was a little unfair in his approach to get Sasuke to talk about it, but I guess it worked for Sasuke's benefit in the end. I was wondering if I was making him too harsh about it, but he had to be feeling out of his mind worried about Sasuke so in the end I left it alone.__  
_

_ This chapter was perhaps I little short for my norm, but chapter 7 will be nice and chunky I promise. Since it was basically the longer ending of chapter 5 too it didn't take real long to get done and posted. Anyway, you saw right, this isn't the end. One more chapter to go to wrap this all up. See you then!_

_ Dash._

**Unsigned Reviews –**

_**Guest – **Yeah, methinks lots of people were happy about Sasuke not getting raped by Yukio. Including me lol. Yep, I couldn't do anything but keep Kyo his usual innocent self either, I've become a tad attached to our little Kyo :)_

_**Guest – **Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :)_

_**Yu-chan – **Yay, Yu-chan! Yes, Dash is indeed a bad influence, very bad. But fun non-the-less haha. _

_Yukio is indeed a very horrible and murder worthy guy. But don't worry Sasuke would have probably not let him die very painlessly you can count on that. Lots and lots of blood and gore so much so that I ended up leaving it out just to leave it up to everyone's dark little imaginings *evil laugh* _


	7. Completely Safe

**Chasing Away the Past**

**Chapter 7**

**Completely Safe**

"Soooooooo..." Kyo began while standing upside down from a tree branch. It had been almost a week since Yukio had died and Sasuke was out with Kyo after visiting the library, tediously watching Kyo run up and down trees. Sasuke peered up at him now, arms folded across his chest.

"What?" he asked when it seemed like Kyo couldn't get himself past the first word.

"You and Naruto...you're not just friends, are you?"

Sasuke raised one eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"Um when we came to rescue you, you looked like you were tryna taste his tonsils."

Sasuke tried not to give himself away by smiling at the comment. "We are friends."

"Yeah but there's more to it than that, right?"

"So what if there is?"

"Ah ha!" Kyo crowed triumphantly almost losing his focus and dropping from the branch. "I knew it!"

"So what?" Sasuke repeated.

"So nothing, I guess. It's not like it bothers me, I was just curious, that's all. Does anyone else know? I mean Naruto's famous and well, you're pretty infamous, so I figured the whole village would be talking about it if it wasn't some big secret or something."

"I'm pretty sure Naruto knows. At least I think he would have noticed by now."

Kyo laughed and rolled his eyes finally jumping down from his perch. "Funny Sasuke-sama. So it's only me who knows?"

"Yes. I don't want to deal with being the talk of the village if it's all the same."

"Ooooooo," Kyo said rubbing his hands together. "I wonder what I could make you do to get me to promise to keep it to myself..."

"Well I could teach you not to overuse your chakra like you were just doing," Sasuke offered. "I could also not cut your tongue from your head."

Kyo wasn't scared by the casual threat but held up his hands in warding anyway. "Jeez, I was just joking. I'm not gonna tell. But will you still teach me anyway?"

Sasuke nodded. "Deal. Now pay attention..."

* * *

Sasuke came home late that night and found food waiting for him that for once resembled and smelt the way it was supposed to. He bought his plate in to eat on the sofa while Naruto watched his ghost show.

Sasuke finished and then spent the next ten minutes watching Naruto flinch.

"When are you going to stop watching that crap?"

"When hell freezes over."

"Moron."

"Jerk."

"I'm going to bed."

"Okay, I'll be in soon. Show's almost over."

* * *

One good thing about the ghost show was that afterwards Naruto was oddly unsettled and cuddly. Sasuke knew it was mean to think this way but he sort of liked it. He pretended he didn't like it, the cuddling, the closeness or the emotional need of Naruto's to apparently let stupid shit scare him, now a grown man, like it would a pre-teenage girl. But it stoked his ego because just him being in the room calmed Naruto and made him sleep when otherwise he'd let the ridiculous show keep him up for hours afterwards.

So tonight when Naruto crawled into bed next to him Sasuke let out a fake annoyed sigh as he anticipated Naruto crawling into bed and snuggling in against his side. But he'd sighed too early apparently because the familiar routine never happened. Naruto just lay down beside him without a word with nothing but a hand against his arm to let Sasuke know he was there at all.

"Not scary tonight?" Sasuke asked.

"No it was plenty scary I guess. But it's just a show after all."

"Oh."

Perhaps since last episode there had been real life things that scared him more. Especially since last episode had been about people being kidnapped and tortured.

It was a pity on many levels that Naruto had to be scared like that in real life. That he saw it at all was a pity and it was a pity too that Sasuke couldn't enjoy their usual Thursday night routine anymore. He'd been looking forward to it tonight especially.

Since last week there had only been minimal affectionate touching. It seemed like an unspoken agreement that sex was not going to happen for a little while at least. No matter how much he wanted to forget it he'd thought that such things might spark the odd memory but perhaps he'd been wrong. He'd told Naruto that it made all the difference in who did the touching and why. So far the kissing, the occasional hand on his arm or back, nothing had managed to creep him out or put him on guard. The difference between rancid meat and ramen he guessed. Besides, Yukio hadn't touched him much this time and the worst the experience had done was bring back some bad memories that were already a little faded and hazy from the intervening years and trying actively to bury the experiences in a dark recess of his mind previously.

Admittedly, it had taken him many years to get over it the first time before he'd stumbled into his situation with Naruto and even then he'd been the one in control, he'd been in the lead and it had probably made all the difference. Then trust had happened and the resulting sex, giving up some of his precious power and focussing on the who and the why...well, it had been a relief to know that perhaps sadistic assholes of nightmares past had not completely broken him after all. He realised now that had been the thing that had bothered him about Naruto being too sensitive previously. Sadistic assholes were not meant to win, they were meant to be overcome. And while never unfortunately completely forgotten about, then at least forgotten about for a few sweet moments when it felt okay to surrender and place trust in another person, someone actually worthy of trust for a change. Nothing Naruto did, in no way that he touched him, made Sasuke think for a second that he wasn't in control of his life.

He actually felt rescued in more ways than one.

He rolled over and found lips and kissed, deeply, slowly and for a few moments at least ignored the shocked 'mmph'. Then Sasuke had to let up.

"Stop lying there like a stunned fish or I might think you don't like me anymore."

"Hah, as if. I'm just surprised, that's all."

"Too surprised to kiss back or can't you handle two emotions at once?"

"Bastard. Maybe I don't feel like kissing you if you're going to be such a prick," Naruto challenged.

"Oh really?"

"No, not really," Naruto admitted before reaching up and kissing him back.

There was nothing about the kiss that suggested either of them felt like taking it further in that moment. But at least afterwards Sasuke got his usual Thursday night after all and fell asleep with a warm body pressed up against his side.

* * *

"I can't believe Yukio turned out to be a traitor," Sakura said in a surprised tone.

Naruto spared Sasuke a brief glance at Sakura's observation but Sasuke looked as impassive as always and hadn't even blinked at her words. It had been over two weeks now since Yukio's attack and Naruto wasn't sure how Sasuke might have reacted to hearing about him again. It didn't seem to bother him but with Sasuke it was sometimes hard to tell.

"The ones that seem easy to trust are often the ones you have to watch the most," Sasuke told her.

_What bullshit_, Naruto thought to himself but he kept his mouth shut and started clearing up after their meal. Sakura had come over after training and had stayed for dinner. Surprisingly it had been Sasuke who had invited her and though she had blushed at the offer she hadn't seemed to read into it too much thankfully. She seemed to be getting into the spirit of being Sasuke's friend even more these days and Naruto got the impression that although she still harboured a little of her old crush she appeared to be resigned to her status as friend only.

He felt bad though that she didn't realise the depths of Yukio's evil. All she knew was the he turned out to be a traitor and none of the details about what had really happened to Sasuke at all. Sasuke hadn't wanted to share which Naruto could completely understand, yet he felt bad that he was keeping so much from her. He never liked keeping secrets and certainly not from someone he considered such a close friend. Admittedly though he'd feel worse for hurting Sasuke if he were to tell her though so he kept his silence on the matter.

Since Yukio's downfall Anbu had managed to find out that Yukio had indeed been working for a tyrant in a neighbouring country, selling powerful ninjutsu scrolls for an impressive amount of money. What he had bought to Tsunade had been the small next to worthless tokens only, most likely just as Sasuke had guessed, to keep on the leaf's good side in case of future troubles. This is all Sakura knew and it was all Sasuke seemed willing to share with anyone else. Tsunade and Kakashi at least knew Sasuke had been abducted and threatened but even they didn't know the main reason behind it.

"Well maybe we should keep our eye on Naruto then," Sakura joked as Naruto bent over the table to reach Sakura's empty bowl. Her eyes flicked down to Naruto's chest for a moment and he watched her brow crease in confusion momentarily before he straightened up and her eyes snapped back up to his face again.

"You okay, Sakura-chan?"

"Uh yeah, of course." To Sasuke she said, "Thanks for dinner."

Sasuke nodded and got up to help clear away the dishes prompting Sakura to her feet as well.

"Well, I better get home. See you tomorrow Naruto!"

"Okay, bye!"

Naruto went into the kitchen and put the dirty dishes in the sink and leant back against the counter as Sasuke came in with more dishes.

"I wonder what was up with Sakura," Naruto wondered aloud.

Sasuke put his load of dishes in the sink and looked over at him frowning slightly as his eyes slid down from Naruto's face.

"Well your t-shirt was gaping a fair bit when you bent over, she could have been admiring your chest. Of course," Sasuke continued stepping closer and reaching up with a single finger to hook the chain around Naruto's neck and bringing it up so Naruto could see, "she could have been a little surprised by the Uchiha symbol around your neck sliding out from beneath your shirt."

Naruto stared at the little red and white silver symbol dangling from Sasuke's fingers with wide eyes. "Fuck."

"So what," Sasuke began dropping the chain and leaning back against the opposite bench. "Just tell her you're showing solidarity or whatever cheesy garbage you usually preach and I'm sure she'll praise you for it."

"Yeah, I guess so," Naruto said uncertainly. "Wait, garbage, you-"

"Alternatively you could always tell her the truth and that you're wearing my clan symbol because you belong to me and the possessive part of my personality likes to see you branded wearing nothing else but that chain when we fuck."

Naruto's mouth dropped open at Sasuke's amused smirk. "Well first she'd beat the shit out of me then she'd never talk to me again."

"Offer to let her watch and I bet all would be forgiven."

Naruto went red. "That's sick. You know not everyone has your perverted mind teme."

"Calm down, I was just joking. Well about Sakura anyway."

A slow smile crept over Naruto's face. "So which part was the truth?"

"Can't you tell?"

Naruto pushed off from the bench and stepped up close to Sasuke reaching up and circling his finger around Sasuke's neck so he could drag the chain Sasuke wore out from beneath his clothes and letting it rest against the front of Sasuke's shirt. "The possessive bit definitely sounds like you."

"And you aren't?" Sasuke asked with one raised brow.

"No!" Naruto protested. "Who'd want to own you? It'd be like owning a feral cat."

"I feel like I should be insulted," Sasuke told him not looking really insulted at all.

"That's generally my aim."

"Well you missed, but that doesn't shock me. Your aim has always been terrible."

"You're such an asshole!"

"You keep telling me that. Makes me wonder why you wanted me to come back."

_That_ stopped Naruto. They were sort of fighting but he'd though it was mainly play fighting. And sure, Sasuke looked at him with that smirky little half smile of his but his eyes didn't quite match the expression. They looked almost solemn.

"Well it wasn't for your fabulous personality, that's for sure," Naruto told him attempting to keep it light.

"Then what was it for?"

But there was no getting out of it. Sasuke might be trying to seem like he wasn't being serious but Naruto knew better. Living with Sasuke all these months, he had almost perfected interpreting the little quirks in Sasuke's expressions, small as they sometimes were.

"I don't really know," Naruto admitted. "I mean of course I care about you, but you want to know why, right?"

Sasuke nodded.

Naruto chewed his lip for a few moments in thought. "I just do. I missed you. You sort of… get me," Naruto finished blowing out a breath. He thought it sounded lame, even to him that he couldn't offer something more than that. In these types of situations he supposed he was supposed to say something gushy like, 'you're the most amazingly kind and considerate person in the world and I love you,' but that wasn't true. Well all but the last part anyway. Sasuke wasn't kind most of the time, he was often inconsiderate, he was abrasive and sometimes mean, twisted and flawed. But that was just it, it was all part of Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't have it any other way. He sure wasn't boring anyway. And deep down, underneath all the flaws there was a strong sort of honour, pride and determination that Naruto found inspiring even if such determination sometimes took Sasuke in some bad directions. And no matter how much Sasuke tried to hide it he was slowly showing care and affection for those around him.

"I… 'get you'?" Sasuke asked in a sort of half amused, half bewildered sort of way.

"It's hard to explain," Naruto admitted. "But when I say 'you get me' I mean you understand me. Even if it irritates you, you still get why I do things even when you don't agree. Nobody knows me that well except for you."

Sasuke sighed, "Touching, but that only means I'm the only one who's tried."

"But you didn't," Naruto told him. "You never tried to understand at first, you just knew, don't you see?"

"Evidently not. Is this to do with that conversation about knowing someone as well as you can without actually being them? Because I could have sworn we've had this conversation before."

"Good, that saves some time then," Naruto responded in relief. "But also I like the deep down you. The one you hide from people."

"This is some sort of dobe code I'm not getting, isn't it?"

"I told you it was hard!"

"Settle down, I was just teasing you. I get it, remember? You explained it enough, I get it. Jeez, most people just tell me I have a nice ass and leave it at that. I'm almost sorry I asked."

And just like that Sasuke went from serious back to playful ribbing. Naruto had noticed the self defence mechanism before but let it slide anyway. It was just Sasuke's way, that when things got too personal he steered away from it again even though he was the one that had started it. Just another quirk in the package that was Sasuke.

"Well I could have I guess, but I thought you wanted a serious answer. I wouldn't lie to you at a time like that after all," Naruto ribbed right back.

"And you say I'm mean. I'm pretty sure that's the second time you've insulted me in the last five minutes. And my ass is perfect. It's not my fault you're blind."

Naruto grinned and stepped in, sliding his hands around to rest one palm flat on either clothed ass cheek.

"S'alright I guess."

"You found it nice enough when it was rubbing up against you the other night."

Naruto's eyes widened. "You _were_ awake! You asshole, that was driving me nuts!"

Sasuke's eyebrow rose. "Oh?"

Naruto flushed. "Well I uh… you were rubbing against me an I…"

"What, like this?" Sasuke asked turning in his arms till his back was to Naruto and _very_ intentionally rubbing back up against him.

"Goddamnit Sasuke, don't do that!"

Sasuke hadn't failed to notice that Naruto hadn't let go of him though.

"Why?"

Sasuke felt warm breath waft against his ear and smelt the faint traces of miso from dinner.

"It's only been two weeks," Naruto replied softly.

Sasuke didn't think Naruto was referring to how long it had been since they'd had sex. He was referring to how long it had been since Yukio had kidnapped him.

"Actually it's been five years," Sasuke told him. But he didn't want to talk about that right now. Talking might have helped last week, but right now he didn't want thoughts of his past to keep hounding him. Right now he wasn't thinking of Yukio, he was thinking of the warm comforting presence behind him missing moments like this when it felt right, natural and painless.

Naruto didn't respond so Sasuke grabbed one of the hands around his waist and started leading them both out of the kitchen.

"Wait, Sasuke what about the dishes? You hate it when –"

"Leave them, I'll do it tomorrow."

"Uh, okay. Where are we-"

But Naruto's question was answered not three seconds later when Sasuke led him into the bedroom. The room was mostly dark lit up only by the moonlight from the window and the light streaming in through the door. He liked it though, he could still see Naruto standing a little nervously now that Sasuke had finally let go of his hand in the middle of the room.

Naruto got the impression that Sasuke hadn't just bought him in here to sleep considering their conversation in the kitchen and was not comfortable about that one bit. Sasuke wasn't used to Naruto being reticent about sex. Okay so maybe in the early days it sometimes took a bit of coaxing but it was unnerving to see him this way now.

Sasuke unzipped his own shirt and let it slide down his arms to land on the floor.

"It's just a bed dobe, it wont eat you."

"You don't want this, not yet."

Sasuke walked back over to him, smiling faintly from the show of protectiveness, pleased about it in a way he hadn't been able to appreciate before. Naruto really did care, it wasn't just some general concern, it was a deep heartfelt want to not hurt the person he cared about most in the world. It wasn't something Sasuke could break through teasing or torture because the want to protect him was stronger than physical feeling or desire. It had been a mistake to assume that their relationship could be controlled that way and it wasn't until after the incident with Yukio, a man who definitely let his dick, not his heart, make decisions for him that Sasuke found a better understanding about this.

"You want the best for me."

It wasn't a question but Naruto nodded anyway.

"Then why do you hold back?"

"What do you…?"

"You know what I mean. Despite everything I have told you, you take it into your head to do what you think is best for me. Which, granted, you might be right sometimes, but you have to learn to listen to me too."

"I listen Sasuke, I do. But rushing things because you think it will make you feel better might make it worse."

"Sure, it might. And tonight a star might fall from the sky and obliterate the village, it could happen but I'm going to guess it's unlikely. But even though the chance is always there, I won't let it stop me from living, I won't let stop me from doing what I want and I will not be afraid."

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

"Well I'm half naked already so what do you think? I don't need convincing, I know what I want."

"What's that?"

Sasuke grinned. "Ramen."

Naruto looked confused. "But Sasuke you don't really like…oh!"

"You really are a bit slow aren't you?"

"Bastard! You keep talking about stars and ramen and all that weird shit so shut up!"

So Sasuke did, he kissed him instead.

He could feel the resistance against his lips immediately but Naruto could never hold out against him for long and soon lips moved softly against his and then with more vigour as Sasuke stepped in to press their bodies up against each other. He felt slightly roughened hands slide up his back as a tongue flicked against his lower lip then delved into his mouth. Clothes were dragged off and discarded in moments and Sasuke felt the very warm heat of Naruto's bare skin pressed up against his own.

There was always a small part of Sasuke that would forever want to take control of every situation, even now, even when he knew he wanted to be taken, that part of his mind would kick him into taking action. And he found nobody could ever stop this want, nobody until now. Naruto was the only one that made that little reaction fade so much that it almost never occurred with him now. He was always so gone in the moment with Naruto, so wrapped up in pleasant sensation that his rebellious control freak mind was too blissed out to even care what was happening.

He felt that even now as Naruto manoeuvred them backwards, turning them and sitting down on the edge of the bed, encouraging Sasuke to follow. Sasuke did, but not in the way Naruto probably expected. As Naruto scooted backwards on his knees, Sasuke climbed onto him, sitting in his lap and rejoining their lips. Arms were wrapped around his waist but he could feel the nervousness in the touch, the hesitance in the kisses. Obviously Naruto still hadn't quite gotten the point of all of Sasuke's speechifying and was still uneasy about the position he was in. So Sasuke did something he should have probably done in the first place.

"If you don't fuck me right now, after all I have done to tempt you, I may have to murder you," Sasuke murmured against his lips.

Naruto let out a small shaky sigh but smiled a little anyway. "I think I'll choose to stay alive then."

It had been a while since he'd been entered so it was difficult to relax and he felt so tightly clenched around Naruto that it did ache a little. But Naruto had done a good job of loosening the muscles and making them soft and relaxed so it wasn't unpleasant. It was the good ache of being completely open, filled and _owned_. That last feeling was usually the one that made Sasuke the most uneasy, but tonight he felt no twinge of fear at not being in control and no want to take over. He just wanted to give in and let trust win over apprehension and chase away a bad past he'd thought he would never be able to get away from.

He would win against the past, he wouldn't let what he'd done and what had been done to him control his life any longer. Coming back here was a new beginning, a new chance for him that he had missed seeing until now and that included how he felt about his life and especially how he felt about those around him.

Naruto slid strong arms behind him and lifted him up off the bed at an angle so he could slide in even deeper. Sasuke's own arm helped to hold himself up while his back arched and he moaned deeply at the sensation. In this position he had little leverage and was at the complete whims of the man inside him but it was easy in that moment to let go, to trust. The familiar scent of Naruto filled his nose and the reassuring sound of his voice as he murmured Sasuke's name, his heart easily heard in his voice, made Sasuke feel at ease.

He gripped the back of Naruto's slick neck and pulled his head down till their lips met and he felt at once complete, completely exposed yet completely safe.

**The End.**

**_But wait, there's more…oh you'd thought I'd forgotten huh :)_**

* * *

**Epilogue.**

"Oh, hi Kakashi-sensei," Sakura greeted her teacher as he exited a restaurant. The restaurant looked to be closing up for the night and Kakashi had been one of five patrons to be leaving.

"Sakura," Kakashi greeted stopping by her. "It's late to be out wandering, isn't it?"

"Oh I was just on my way home from Naruto's. I had dinner with him and Sasuke after training."

"A dinner party, very domesticated of them," Kakashi observed.

"It was only a last minute thing and only because Sasuke cooked." Sakura stopped for a moment, chewing her lip as though wanting to say more but a little unsure of how to start. "Hey Kakashi-sensei, have you noticed anything…different about them?"

"You seem troubled. Fighting again, were they?"

"Um, no. Actually they seem to be getting along really well apart from the name calling. But it's been like that ever since Sasuke got back. I mean they still verbally abuse each other in the street, but it's almost like they were never really apart. When Sasuke first left the village they seemed more likely to kill each other than be friends but now and from the very moment he got back it's almost like they _are_ best friends. I mean I'm glad they're finally more or less getting along but I would have thought they'd have more issues than this. Oh I don't know, it sounds stupid now that I say it out loud. I don't even know why I would worry about something like this. I should be happy they're friends now."

Kakashi gazed at her troubled expression for a moment before deciding what to say. "No doubt it's more complicated between them than they want us to know. You know how private Sasuke is. You really shouldn't worry."

"I guess so. I mean I'm not worried about them killing each other, I just thought it was weird how suddenly close they seem to be, that's all. Oh well, I should let you get home. Good night, sensei."

Kakashi watched Sakura leave in thoughtful silence. He felt a little bad for her because she really did care about them both and could see they were hiding something from her. And it was something she was going to have a difficult time coming to terms with considering her infatuation. Or was that: infatuation_s_? She might have stopped actively pursuing Sasuke but it didn't mean she had completely fallen out of love with him overnight. But her unrecognised infatuation with Naruto was going to cause her some hurt when she found out he was out of her reach too.

Ah, young love was always so complicated especially when the two people you were in love with were so obviously sleeping with each other.

Kakashi sighed, stuck his hands in his pockets and started off home. He just had to hope things wouldn't get too nasty.

* * *

Afterwards they lay in a content exhausted heap of tangled sweat soaked limbs and stared at the ceiling. Well Naruto did, Sasuke figured that nothing had the power to keep his own eyes open at this point.

"Okay," Naruto relented breathlessly. "I believe you, you can move past this."

"Took you long enough," Sasuke replied with a lazy smile.

Naruto boosted himself up a little onto his bent arm and gazed down at Sasuke for a few moments in silence, a neutral sort of expression on his face.

Eventually though he made himself speak.

"So I guess this is as good a time as ever to ask how you got your Chidori to work against Yukio."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open, his smile melted from his face and he stared at the ceiling.

"Fuck."

**Really The End.**

**For Now :)**

* * *

_Notes: Oh it's not a cliffhanger, don't scowl so. I liked that it was a similar ending to the end of I'd Love. Not exactly a cliffhanger, but not exactly an end either. I couldn't resist. But at least this time I can say with some degree of confidence that this is not the end of things. Eventually I will probably get around to writing yet another instalment because I know I did not get through most of the issues people wanted me to. In this one we didn't really deal with Sasuke fitting back into the village apart from his friendship with Kyo, nor did we deal with their friends finding out about their relationship either. Though I did put that little bit in about Kakashi at the end (but I think most of you had an inkling that he already knew anyway) and Sakura is getting the impression that there is something funny in their 'friendship' as well. Of course I can't promise all this will be answered in the next fic either but at least the Sasuke fitting in will be more addressed. We'll also get a glimpse of jealous Sasuke (cause I know there are a few of you that love that) and protective Sasuke too. Gee, can you guess the next one will be a Sasuke one as well? What can I say, he's the one with the most to deal with right now. All Naruto really has to deal with is Sasuke which is fun in itself ;) The next one should be a little lighter it will also have more of their friends in it as well. Kyo will be back here and there too cause he seems to be a favourite and I've grown a bit attached to him as well :)_

_ I have no idea what the next fic will be called at this point but I will post up a preview like usual when it gets close to posting. It won't be for some time yet though. I want to have Remember Me done and dusted before I even look at this fic again. _

_As for Remember Me, yes it will be the next thing being posted and I'm back working hard on it I promise. Like I said, it's taken me a while to get back into the swing of things and I was only still able to keep posting this one on time because the bulk of it was really well prepared beforehand. Remember Me chapter 16 is coming along though admittedly I actually have Part 3 of The Long Way Home further ahead than Remember Me is at this point but I promise I won't start posting that again till I have something to show for Remember Me. Please don't hold me to this but I hope to have Part 3 of Remember Me begun within the fortnight or so. _

_Till then, thanks for reading WNL and I really hope you enjoyed it :)_

_ Dash._

**Unsigned reviews –**

_**Guest – **Very true, I can't see Sasuke responding to the over the top protectiveness too well so I'm happy I left forceful Naruto in there._

_As for Remember Me… I am sorry about the delay, but I promise I had my reasons as you might have read about in previous posts. But as I mentioned above I hope to have something for you soon and it will be the next thing released :)_

_**Yu-chan – **I taint so much Yu-chan not even names can escape my evil ways mwahaha. _

_Wow cosplay fashion show? Do you have pics anywhere I would loves to see them :)_

_Yeah, I know a few people wanted to see the bloody gore and I was tempted to kick my dark brain into gear and really make Yukio's death gory but decided against it because while I wanted Sasuke to seem like a strong character and able and willing to take bloody revenge I also wanted people to feel sorry for him too which they no doubt still would have done, but at the same time letting Sasuke's murderous internal monster loose wasn't something I wanted people to dwell on since I am trying to rehabilitate him into village ways. Well as much as you can with Sasuke anyways lol. I'm glad the fluff made up for the lack of gore though yay._

_L's sister is so your nickname now :)_

_**Saby a – **Aw hungry but kinda cute I was hoping. I really must give Sasuke a happier story one day._

_**Jhim – **Wow, thanks! I'm happy you have enjoyed the series so far, it has been a pretty big journey from I Want to here and am very glad you're still liking it now :) Hope you enjoyed the last chapter of this instalment! _


	8. Living in the Now: Preview

_**AN: Begining may change slightly upon final posting. Which should be very soon. Enjoy :)**_

WNL Series: Living in the Now

Preview

Naruto waved goodbye to his teammates and started off toward home. He liked being able to get out and go on missions, but he had to admit he was a little happier at the prospect of coming home and knowing what was waiting for him here. It was still a little unreal to think about having a happy home life to return to for the first time in his life and he was glad in a way that the feeling never got old or boring. He liked that even almost a year of living with a person and being in a relationship with that person always made him excited to return home each and every time. Just the knowledge that Sasuke was here, home and waiting for him made him smile hugely and quicken his pace towards his apartment. Even though he knew he would be paying the price for being away for days to come. It always happened and Naruto would have it no other way. No surprises to ruin that.

Or so he thought.

He was just turning into his street passing a small alleyway in between two buildings when he was swiftly grabbed and dragged into the shadows. One strong arm twisted his arm up behind him and pushed him roughly into the side of the building. The other held a hand over his mouth so he couldn't shout. Having his arm held like this meant he couldn't use jutsu. But that didn't mean he couldn't fight back.

Before he attacked, he felt a body press in behind him and a cool voice whispered into his ear, "You should watch where you're going, dobe."

"Sasuke, damnit!" Or that's what he would have said if he didn't have Sasuke's hand clamped over his mouth. Instead it came out more like 'sske, ami!"

Sasuke took his hand away from Naruto's mouth and glided it down over his chin and throat. "You never know who might try to attack you in your own village," Sasuke continued.

"Obviously," Naruto muttered. "Sasuke, what if the Anbu saw you?"

"They won't," Sasuke replied smugly moving his hand again to slide down over Naruto's jacket till his fingers could tease the bare skin between his shirt and pants. "I lost them about ten minutes ago."

He licked the edge of Naruto's ear and his hand moved down underneath the waistband of Naruto's orange pants. What Sasuke was doing was pretty distracting, but what he said snapped Naruto right out of his happy touching world.

"What?! Sasuke, you can't ditch your security detail all the time! It looks really bad!"

"Worse than them seeing me pin the hero of Konoha up against a wall and molesting him in broad daylight?" Sasuke asked mockingly.

That was a good point.

"You could have waited till I got home."

"Boring."

Sasuke often got bored in Konoha these days. It wasn't the first time he'd ditched his security detail and no doubt it probably wouldn't be the last. At least usually he waited till someone else other than Naruto was supposed to be watching him to do it so he avoided getting Naruto into trouble while at the same time reinforcing the notion that the only one that could watch him properly was Naruto as well. Sasuke didn't even generally have a good reason for ditching and Naruto had begun to suspect he only did it to see if he could. Especially at first when all his chakra driven abilities had been taken away from him, Sasuke seemed intent to prove to himself and everyone else that he was still a force to be reckoned with. Which was entirely true of course. He was super fast, agile and a very skilled fighter. Most chunin with all their chakra abilities would be hard pressed to keep him at bay. Even most jonin wouldn't be able to beat him in an all out taijutsu fight and this was a fact that Sasuke seemed eager to prove to everyone no matter the ramifications. Not that he started fights, he wasn't completely stupid. But he ditched his security, he sparred quite viciously on the training grounds with Naruto and even though his Sharingan was still not working as it should, he liked to turn it on occasionally just to scare people that were annoying him. Which was practically everyone.

Of course Naruto knew that Sasuke also occasionally ditched to go train in private too. A few months ago Naruto had bore witness to Sasuke using a chakra ability to fight off an attacker. It had shocked him to see it but due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, he could hardly be upset by the results. When confronted about his returned ability Naruto had been informed that it was the first time he'd been able to use it to such a degree since his neutralization but admitted that beforehand he had been slowly regaining some ability in the months previous. Naruto had thought he'd be pissed about the deception, and he was a little unimpressed by the lack of sharing something so important, but he'd been a little happy about it too. Sasuke had some ability it would seem and yet showed no indication of wanting to return to old ways or his old life. Knowing what he might be able to do hadn't tempted Sasuke to take his temper out on villagers that even now still sneered at him openly in the street. Sasuke just ignored them, pretended they didn't exist and continued to live the life he was slowing beginning to build for himself here. Naruto was proud of him so it was difficult to be pissed at him.

Besides, as Sasuke had pointed out to him, Naruto knowing was not strictly doing him any favors. It forced Naruto to keep the deception from those he had close ties to. If the Hokage knew about Sasuke's ever re-growing abilities he didn't think she would see things quite like Naruto did. She wouldn't be proud that so far Sasuke had restrained himself from unwanted violence, she would just see him as a threat once more. So Naruto was forced to keep quiet on the matter and he felt guilty because of it.

It didn't help matters either that Sasuke seemed intent on proving himself to be an annoyance to those who were supposed to be guarding him either. He was exceptionally bad in other words of playing the part of the ruthless rogue ninja turned meek defenseless prisoner. Having his chakra abilities taken away from him was supposed to mean that Sasuke was no longer a threat to the general populous. But against Naruto's most of the time quite heated protests, Sasuke just couldn't get it into his head to play his part properly. He worried that if Sasuke continued to be a problem they might start thinking about doing something drastic to him like they had originally planned.

Naruto struggled a little bit and Sasuke reluctantly released him. Naruto turned on him red faced and breathing a little hard. It was only partly due to anger though.

"I don't care if it's boring or not. How many times do I have to tell you that if you go along with the idea that you're a neutralized threat so they might leave you alone?"

"You could tell me a hundred more and I wouldn't care."

"Well _I_ care, doesn't that matter!?"

Sasuke shrugged. "No."

"You want them to think you'd be better off dead?"

"Actually I do. At least then I'd know they don't think I'm worthless anymore."

And that was the thing that always made Naruto lose these fights. It was a reminder to him that the only reason Sasuke was actually doing any of this was to prove to himself more than anyone else that he wasn't completely powerless now. It reminded Naruto about what Sasuke had given up in order to stay alive and with him in the village.

"I'm pretty sure they don't think that Sasuke," Naruto replied truthfully and a lot more calmly that he had been a minute ago. "No doubt there are at least two Anbu scouring the city for you, cursing your name, who don't think you're worthless."

Sasuke smirked again. "Mission accomplished then. So now I wonder if I can I finish molesting you here before they show up or whether your ranting at me lost us too much precious time."

"Let's go home." Naruto sighed. "After I find those Anbu and let them know you're with me."

Sasuke joined him walking back toward the street proper. "And here I thought you wanted to keep that a secret still."

"You know what I mean Sasuke! Why do you have to tease me so much!?"

"Everyone needs a hobby, I suppose."


End file.
